Ninjago Masters of Spinjitsu The True Path
by Song Of Hope
Summary: The truth of what happened in Ninjago has yet to be revealed by historians, of what happened eons ago. Only half the story was uncovered. Now the full story is revealed. 4 new elements, new enemies, and where it all really started.
1. Episode 1 Way Of The Ninja

**Song Of Hope:** **This, again, is basically just Ninjago: The Untold Truth, but it's gonna be way better. I'm better at plotting, better at writing, and better at creating characters, as well as following the rules of Ninjago Elements.** **RR**

An old man was walking up to a blacksmith's shop, where two people, a brother and sister, lived. The brother, who had very spiky red-brown hair, was forging a sword.

"To forge the perfect weapon," he said as he hammered at the hot sword above the burning coals, "you need the right amount of metal and heat." He dunked the hot sword in the bucket of water. "Cool it off, and, presto!" He looked at his messed up sword. The sister, laughed a little at his attempted smithing.

"You made it too quickly Kai. Be patient. If father was here, he'd say-"

"I know, I know," he said as he cut her off, rolling his eyes, "no matter how much fire you have, experience isn't something you learn overnight." He turned to her, clearly annoyed. "That may work for you Nya, but I'm gonna be a better blacksmith than dad ever was." The old man walked in as Kai turned back to the forge, ready to try again.

"Hm, your metal is loud and heavy," he observed wisely, "useful to slow one down. It is useless in the art of stealth. Are tools for a samurai, but nothing for a ninja or even a kunoichi?" Kai looked a bit amused, but insulted as well.

"Ninja? You're a long way from finding a ninja in these parts old man, or a kunoichi." He moved away from the forge, going towards the old man with a glare as he got in his face. "And the shop is called Four Weapons, not For Browsing. Either buy something or go pedal your insults somewhere else." The old man just shrugged.

"Hm, too bad. Thought I'd find something special here." Kai turned to Nya, who gave him a mean look that said to apologize, so he turned around to grab a helmet.

"If it's something special you're looking for," he started turning around to show him, "then let me-" when he looked, the old man wasn't there. Nya looked worried for him.

"What is it?" Kai looked around, trying to find the old man.

"He, he was just here!" Nya raised an eyebrow, wondering how he missed seeing the old man leave. Kai sighed. "Forget it."

* * *

The skies above Ignacia Village turned black as giant vehicles with undead skeletons rolled up.

"Let me go first, oh please, oh please! I'm dying to go down there!" Three skeletons in a giant tank were rolling up to Kai's house. One of the skeletons, one wearing a large black helmet, yelled at one wearing an eye patch.

"You nitwit, you're already dead! Try controlling yourself in front of Master Samukai!" Then, he put his hands together and meekly looked down, like a high school girl talking to her crush. "With all due respect, last time, you did say I could go down first." The last skeleton, who had four arms, turned to both of them, seeming to be Samukai with the way he addressed both of them.

"Sorry boys, this one is mine. Just remember what we're after, and find that map. ATTACK!" The skeleton tank and the other skeletons on bikes started going very fast, all heading towards one place, scaring many villagers who were just harvesting some crops.

Nya and Kai were looking from their window. Kai was dressing up.

"What are they?" He put on a black helmet.

"I don't know. Stay here." Kai went outside, his stance showing he was prepared to fight, but not to do it right. A skeleton came up to him and started attacking Kai with a bone, using it like a sword. He accidentally popped off the skull of a skeleton next to him by elbowing it off, so it hopped over to him and bit his foot.

"OW!" He looked down at the skeleton, a pissed expression on his face. "Bite this!" He kicked it very far away, and two skeletons started clapping at the amazing kick he did. In their blindness to their surroundings, Nya took the chance to sneak behind them and attack them with a Bo Staff. He ran to her brother's side, but he was mad at her.

"Nya, I thought I told you to stay back!" He knocked over two skeletons. She smiled playfully at him like a sister would.

"And what, let you hog all the fun?" She knocked over three other skeletons. "No way." They fought as two of the skeletons snuck into the shop, ransacking it for the map. One stopped to put on a helmet and look at himself in a reflective shield. The other one threw a helmet at him.

"You're not looking hard enough!" The first skeleton rubbed his head.

"OW! _You're_ not looking hard enough!" He threw the helmet back and they started fighting, knocking off the Four Weapons sign, which had a map in the back.

Kai was fighting, when Samukai came up to him, hiding his arms behind his back. Kai looked pretty cocky and assured of victory until Samukai revealed his arms.

"Whoops." Samukai started attacking him, trying to slash Kai to pieces, but Kai kept just barely dodging the attacks, until he was able to disarm Kai and throw his sword aside. He was about to go in for the kill, spinning the knives in his hands round and round, but then a voice cried out.

"NINJAGO!" A golden tornado came at Samukai, knocking his weapons away. The tornado stopped spinning and showed the old man. Samukai smirked at the old man.

"Sensei Wu, your Spinjitsu looks rusty." Sensei Wu thoughtfully stroked his beard.

"Nothing like bone to sharpen its edge Samukai." Kai was struggling to get up because his armor was too heavy. Samukai took advantage of that and threw his knives at Wu, knowing he'd dodge them, to they hit the water tower. It almost fell on Kai, but then Sensei Wu used his Spinjitsu to save Kai. Samukai jumped on his tank.

"Lord Garmadon says take the girl!" Sensei Wu was shocked at what he had heard.

"Lord Garmadon?" One of the skeletons launched a giant skeleton hand targeted at Nya. She screamed as she soared through the air, towards the skeleton vehicle.

"NYA!" They took Nya away before anyone else could do anything about it. Kai sounded shocked and very upset. "They took Nya." Sensei Wu walked up to Kai.

"I told you," he tapped on Kai's helmet with his Bo staff, "useless." Kai blew up, shouting at Sensei Wu for not stopping him.

"ARGH! You could've done something! You could've used your twistitsu or-" Sensei Wu cut him off.

"Spinjitsu." Kai glared at him even more.

"But you did _nothing_!" he turned away from Sensei Wu, starting to follow the skeletons. "I'm gonna get my sister back!" He started walking off, but Sensei Wu said something that stopped him.

"Where they go, a mortal cannot." Kai stopped and turned around. "That was Samukai, King of the Underworld. If he is carrying out orders for Lord Garmadon, then things are far worse than I feared." Kai angrily walked towards him, brandishing his sword in anger.

"Lord Garmadon?! Underworld?! What's going on?! What do we have that's so important to them, and why would they take my sister?!" Sensei Wu frowned slightly in anger and moved to no longer be in Kai's face.

"What's so important?! How about everything in Ninjago itself!" Then, he got prepared to explain everything. "Long before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the First Spinjitsu Master, using the Eight Weapons of Spinjitsu. They were the Scythe of Quakes, the Nunchaks of Lightning, the Shurikens of Ice, the Sword of Fire, the Chigiriki of Metal, the Fans of the Wind, the Sais of Flora, and the Tonfas of Sand. These weapons are so powerful and so many; no one can handle their power at once except for the First Spinjitsu Master himself. None can even hold them all. When he passed away, his two sons swore to protect them, but the oldest was consumed by darkness and wanted to possess them. A battle between brothers broke out, and the oldest was struck into the Underworld. Peace returned, and the younger brother hid the weapons. But, knowing his brother's relentless ambition for power, he placed a guardian to protect each weapon, and, for fear of his own demise, a map for an honest man to hide. That honest man was your father Kai. The older brother is Lord Garmadon, and I need to find those before he does." Kai figured it out quickly.

"You're the younger brother? Then, you came here looking for the map?" Sensei Wu shook his head.

"No, I came for something greater," he said as he pointed his Bo staff towards Kai. "You. Since my brother cannot enter this realm, it is obvious he has struck a deal with Samukai. If he were to collect all eight weapons, even I would not be able to stop him again." He pointed at Kai with his Bo Staff again, moving it closer towards him. "But you, you have the fire inside. I will train you to harness it, use it, become a Spinjitsu Master." Kai completely disregarded what was just said.

"Look, I'm flattered that you think I'm all that, but I've gotta save my sister. I don't want to get involved in your sibling rivalry." He started walking off, but Sensei Wu took him down easily, and so quickly it was hard to see what happened. Sensei Wu laughed.

"How clumsy of you! You're not ready to face my pinkie toe." He lifted up his foot and wiggled it in Kai's face. "If you want to get your sister back, you must control the fire that burns inside." He tapped Kai's helmet with his staff. "Only when you are a Spinjitsu Master will you be able to face Lord Garmadon." Kai sighed in defeat.

"Okay, when do we start?"

* * *

He was struggling to climb up a mountainside, while Sensei Wu did it with ease. Kai climbed over a rock, and he wasn't very happy.

"How long is this training?" Sensei Wu only said one word.

"Patience." They climbed all the way over it and Sensei Wu opened up the doors, to show a monastery. "You will be ready when you are ready, and not a moment sooner." He opened the door. Kai was in shock at what he saw, and a little angry.

"A monastery? You expect me to learn to fight in a place of peace?" Sensei Wu shook his head.

"Not fight, train. First, in order to become a ninja, you must be able to see what others do not." Kai held up his arms, partially at what was before him.

"But there's nothing here!"

"Tell me about it. If it weren't for the magic martial arts I saw and the lack of asking for money, I'd think this was all just an elaborate scam." He was shocked at the voice. He looked around, trying to figure out where it came from until he saw a girl with blonde hair that was really knotted, dressed like a hobo, with ratty yellow clothes.

"And who are you?" She smiled and walked down.

"My name's Bree, and I got here yesterday. Sensei Wu found me wandering around and gave me a place to sleep and eat temporarily in exchange for being his student until I learn Spinjitsu." He raised an eyebrow.

"Temporarily?" She nodded, looking at the sky and smiling.

"I'm a drifter. I never stay in one place for too long, so once this whole Lord Garmadon thing is done with, I'm outta here." Sensei Wu frowned at that.

"You are here to forge strong bonds of friendship and of sibling strength that transcends the boundaries of blood ties." She rolled her eyes.

"Look, I have a destiny of some sort, that's all I understand. I don't wanna be cooped up. I hate staying in one place for too long, and as soon as this whole Garmadon mess is done with, I'm moving along. I only came out of sheer boredom anyway." He sighed.

"I cannot change your mind. Only time is able to do such a thing." He looked at them as Bree moved to stand next to Kai. "Now, what did you say Kai? About the monastery, I mean." Kai rolled his eyes.

"I said there's nothing here." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't think that needs to be repeated." Sensei Wu pushed the statue over, which made a button come out. He pressed it, and an entire training facility came out of the floor. Kai and Bree were both amazed, but she stood in her spot while Kai moved to get on the course. "Cool, is this going to teach me that cool move?" He jumped on a wooden pole, making Sensei Wu's eyes widen a bit.

"Oh dear." It came down, then shot up, sending Kai flying, landing on his face. Bree laughed.

"That is priceless!" Sensei Wu sat down next to a pot of tea, a sugar cube holder, and a teacup.

"Complete the training course before I finish my tea, then we shall see if you are ready." Kai didn't even bother getting up while Sensei Wu drank his tea. "Today, you have failed." Kai was about to protest, but Sensei Wu cut him off and turned to Bree. "Bree, would you like to go?" She smiled.

"Of course." He poured himself another cup. She only got through the first training cylinder before he finished his cup.

"You have failed too." She looked at him in disbelief.

"Failed?" In her distraction, a fake person hit her in the face.

"Yes, failed." He stood up and opened a screen door behind him. "Tomorrow, we shall try again." He closed it behind him.

Every day, each of them got a little further than the day before, but each day, they both failed. For several days, instead of learning any moves, Sensei Wu insisted that before he could do anything else for them that they had to complete the training course before he was done with his tea. And every day they both failed.

The next day, Kai came with a wooden sword, and Bree with a pair of fans. When Kai went through, he threw his sword at the cup, and finished while Sensei Wu got his second cup of tea. Bree, on the other hand, knocked the teapot out of his hand, and spilled all the tea before he could even pour a cup, and then fully completed the course. He smiled at them both.

"No use crying over spilled tea." Kai looked at Sensei Wu expectantly.

"So, when do we get to learn the Spinjitsu stuff?" Bree nodded, relieved.

"I feel like I've been here for way too long." Sensei Wu stood up, heading to the screen door behind him.

"You have already learned it. Your next lesson is to figure out how to use it, your task is to get some sleep."

That night, six strange black-cloaked figures were in the monastery, sneaking around. Three were on one half, while another three were on the other half. They never noticed each other, and went on their way.

* * *

Kai was brushing his teeth before bed, thinking about what Wu had said.

"Oh yeah? Well take this, and this!" He pretended his toothbrush was a sword. He started spinning around, two ninja popping up behind him, one holding Nunchaks, the other holding shurikens. "And this!" He came face to face with another ninja, one wielding a scythe. "Oops."

* * *

Bree looked in the mirror, seeing her appearance. As two kunoichi snuck behind her, one wielding twin sais and one wielding twin tonfas, she sighed.

"This is getting boring. Even if-" As she turned around, another kunoichi wielding a chigiriki came to be in front of her, the other two moving to be behind her. Her eyes widened, but they she smiled. "Well, this should be fun."

* * *

Kai threw his toothbrush at the ninja wielding the shurikens. He spat it out and made it hit the face of the one wielding the Nunchaks. It bounced off his head and then fell into the pants of the one with the scythe. Kai took the chance to jump up onto the rafters and escape, but the ninjas were in hot pursuit of him. The one with the shurikens jumped up from the floor in front of him and lunged, but Kai quickly moved over and dodged, making the other guy go straight past and fall. Kai laughed, but then realized he didn't have the luxury for such things and started running away again. However, one of them caught up to him and kicked him right into the courtyard.

* * *

Bree smiled and got into a fighting stance. The girl with a chigiriki swung it, trying to hit Bree, but she grabbed the chain part and yanked it out of her hands and then threw it at the girl with the sais. The girl with the tonfas the tried to beat Bree, but she easily dodged the attacks. She then slid to be on her back and kicked the girl's stomach, moving her in an arc to throw her into the girl with the sais. The girl who had the chigiriki grabbed it again, but in that time, Bree ran off, heading straight for the courtyard.

* * *

Kai flipped the dragon switch over and activated the course just as Bree ran out, with the three kunoichi right behind her. As the ninjas got hit with punching bags and training dummies, the kunoichi walked right into the part with the moving sticks and kept getting bashed in between those things. Kai was in shock at who was pursuing Bree.

"You have ninja on your trail too?!" All of the kunoichi glared at him, holding up their weapons.

"WE'RE KUNOICHI!" Kai and Bree stood back-to-back and fought against their six adversaries. Even though it was 2 against 6, they managed to keep it at a stalemate until someone interjected.

"STOP!" They all looked at Sensei Wu. The three ninjas and three kunoichi automatically stopped and straightened into a row, bowing in respect.

"Yes Sensei." Then, the ninja group and the kunoichi group looked at each other in confusion. Kai walked up to Sensei Wu a little, also highly confused.

"Wait a minute! They're you're students too?!" Bree looked even madder.

"And you didn't even bother telling us?! How the hell did they stay here without us noticing?!" Then, it hit Kai why the event had occurred.

"This was our final test?" The ninja with the nunchaks started protesting and running his mouth.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Sensei, you never said anything about a forth, left alone a fifth and sixth and a seventh and an eighth! And you never said anything about girls!" Bree and the other kunoichi glared at him, but the kunoichi with the chigiriki grabbed him by the front of his shirt and lifted him up.

"What's wrong with girls?!" He put his hands up in mock surrender, but mainly so she wouldn't hurt him.

"Nothing!" He turned back to Sensei Wu. "It's just that's its always been us three, three blind mice, three bears in the forest, three musketeers-" The ninja with the scythe cut him off, walking up a little.

"What he is trying to say Sensei Wu is that we've trained together. We're solid." Kai folded his arms over his chest.

"Didn't look so solid to me." Before anyone else could say anything, the kunoichi with the tonfas walked up.

"Sensei Wu, what in Ninjago is going on?" Sensei Wu walked down the steps.

"Each of you has been chosen, each in tune with elemental properties. But first, NINJAGO!" He used his Spinjitsu to change them into new outfits with new weapons. Kai wore red and had a sword, Bree wore yellow and had two metal fans, the kunoichi with the chigiriki wore gray, the kunoichi with the tonfas wore orange, the ninja with the nunchaks wore blue, the ninja with the shuriken wore white, and the last one stayed in black, with a scythe. Kai looked down at himself in shock.

"Whoa! How'd he do that?" The one in blue seemed pretty happy.

"Look what color I am!" Bree looked down and seemed pretty happy.

"Yellow's always been my favorite color." The one still in black looked a bit confused.

"Wait a minute, I'm still black." Sensei Wu pointed towards Kai.

"Kai, Master of Fire. It burns bright in you. Jay is blue," he put his Bo Staff on Jay's shoulders, "Master of Lightning." He looked pretty proud of himself.

"That's not all I'm master of. I do a little inventing, I dabble in model building, touch in cooking, a little in poetry." The one in black rolled his eyes.

"More like mouth of lightning." Sensei Wu pointed out that one next.

"Black Ninja is Cole, solid as rock, Master of Earth." He spun around and held his scythe out to Kai.

"Nice to meet you kid. I got your back. And for the record," he threw off his zukin, revealing his long, thick black hair, "there ain't nothing in this world that I'm afraid of." The one in white held up his hand slightly to make a point.

"Except for dragons." Cole looked a little timid at that.

"Dragons aren't from this world Zane. I said in this world." The gray kunoichi got very excited.

"I love dragons! I make them all the time when I'm soldering or welding." Sensei Wu pointed her out.

"Kim is gray, for she is as strong as steel, and the Master of Metal." She smiled, pretty proud of herself.

"I love metal! It's great, and can be used for anything." She threw off her zukin, revealing her long black hair. "Although it's pretty dangerous, just like me." She smirked. The kunoichi in purple rolled her eyes.

"Kim, you get way too excited over things. And you're a giant ball of fluff, you aren't dangerous." Sensei Wu pointed towards her as she finished her sentence, throwing off her zukin to show her red hair.

"Rose is the Purple Kunoichi, and is the Master of Flora." He then turned toward the girl in orange. "Sam is the Master of Sand, and the Orange Kunoichi." She smiled and took off her hood, showing her long, sun-bleached hair.

"Never been a big fan of orange, but I'm sure I can pull off this look." He turned back towards Bree.

"And the last of the kunoichi is Bree, Master of the Wind." She nodded.

"But remember, this is only a temporary thing." He nodded and turned towards Zane.

"The White Ninja is Zane, Master of Ice, and a seer of sixth sense." He spun around and then held out his shurikens, seeming to make them disappear with a little slide of hand. Kai leaned over to Kim.

"I sense that this one takes things a little too seriously." Zane took his zukin off, revealing his straight up blond hair.

"You too have the gift?" Jay laughed a little as he put his hand on Zane's shoulder.

"He's just making a joke Zane." Jay took his zukin off, showing his brown hair. "You remember what we talked about? Your sense of humor, huh?"

"Yes, it was a joke, ha ha." Jay smacked himself on the forehead. Sensei Wu shouted out to them.

"Pay attention! You eight are the chosen ones who will protect the eight weapons of Spinjitsu from Lord Garmadon."

"While all of this is interesting, what about Nya?" Jay got pretty excited.

"Whoa, no one ever said we were rescuing a girl! Is she hot?" Rose, Kim, Bree, Sam, and Kai glared at Jay. "What?" Kim whacked him upside the head.

"For one, that was practically an insult to our appearances." Kai nodded, threatening jay by putting a sword very close to him.

"And second, she's my sister." Jay backed away a little.

"I just wanna know what we're getting ourselves into. Does she like blue?" Kai stepped closer.

"Back off." Sensei Wu walked over and pushed Kai's sword down and away from Jay's throat.

"When we find the weapons, we will find your sister. It is time. We must go to the first weapon!" Cole stepped forward, a bit concerned.

"Whoa, hold on a minute, you said you were going to teach us Spinjitsu." Sensei Wu's expression did not change as he replied to Cole.

"Spinjitsu is inside each and every one of you. But it will only be unlocked when the key is ready to be found." Kim rolled her eyes.

"Great." Jay looked highly annoyed.

"Now we have to find a key?" Cole nodded.

"Yeah, I'm feeling like he's taking us for a ride." Kai looked at them with determination on his face.

"Well, if it means finding my sister, then sign me up."

* * *

"Sign me up," said Jay in an annoyed, mocking voice. Everyone short of Sensei Wu was pulling the horse carriage. Zane, Bree, Rose, and Kai, in that order, were on the right, Cole, Jay, Sam, and Kim were on the left in that order. Cole clenched his teeth as he made a comment to what Jay had said.

"Way to go spark plug." Kim turned to Kai and glared.

"Kai, you're not pulling enough on your side." He glared back at her.

"I'm not the only one on this side!" Kim rolled her eyes.

"You're the one next to me so I can tell!" Sensei Wu yelled at the both of them.

"Quit arguing! You cannot work as a team if there is a large enmity between you two! You two barely know each other, so take the time to get along and find the things you respect about each other, and this is the perfect time." Zane thought about what they were doing.

"I sense this is some strange form of team building." Cole rolled his eyes and looked towards Zane.

"Whatever this is, just keep pulling. We've got a long way to go." He looked back forward. Sam looked around, trying to start some conversation.

"So, how did Sensei find you guys? I was on my way to new places." She thought about how she'd been on her way to Ninjago City and on a particularly stormy day, had taken shelter in a nearby cave, where Sensei Wu was waiting with a fresh, hot pot of tea and a nice warm fire.

They all looked at each other, and then Cole answered him.

"I don't know about you or what you think, but I think if Sensei didn't exist, we'd never be seen together. I was testing my limits." He thought about how he nearly fell off the mountain at seeing Sensei Wu up there, drinking tea. Jay nodded.

"I was testing my invention." He thought about how he had tried a glider that he had invented, which only made him crash into a billboard that Sensei Wu was behind. Zane remembered what he had been doing.

"And I was testing myself." He thought about how he had been underwater for a long time, and then suddenly saw Sensei Wu, somehow drinking tea underwater, and accidentally breathed in some, couching and choking.

"I was just making my greatest creation!" She smiled at the thought of the dragon she'd welded from scrap, which Sensei Wu managed to climb on top of.

"I was visiting the library." Rose thought about how she'd been reaching for a book that was too high up and how Sensei Wu had handed it to her from the top of the shelf, which was ridiculously high up.

"Stop!" called out Sensei Wu. They all stopped pulling. "The Caves of Despair. Samukai must be close to unearthing the Scythe of Quakes." They all let go and walked towards the edge of the valley before stopping. "Remember, do not use the weapon, or its power-" Jay cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's too much for us mortals. Alright guys, lets chop sake this lemonade stand. Cole, do you have a plan?" He nodded.

"Sure do. First, we lower ourselves down the ledge, and then, where's Kai?" Bree pointed.

"I think the idiot is down there." There, Kai was sneaking around to get to the Golden Weapon first. Jay sighed.

"Let's go." They all leaped off. They sneaked past some skeletons and got under an over turned cart. They made one skeleton drop a rock on his foot when they bumped into a boulder. They started walking and saw another skeleton, but this one saw Kai, so they took it under the cart before it had the chance to alert the others, then beat it up.

Kai looked around, trying to find Samukai. If he found Samukai, he found the map. He saw him on top of a guard tower with a paper in his hand.

"The map!"

The rest of the ninja and the kunoichi were under a conveyor belt, heading into the mine. The two skeletons that found the map were there. The one with the eye patch held up a rock.

"Oh, oh, I found something!" The other one smacked him in the back of the skull.

"You idiot, it's just another rock!" He still looked excited about his rock.

"But it looks like a doughnut! I wonder if it tastes like one." He bit it, and his teeth came out. The other skeleton just sighed.

Kai snuck up to the guard tower. All the other ninja and kunoichi followed behind. When they were all up there, Jay smacked him in the back of the head.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kai shushed him. Samukai looked at the map, then put it down and faced away from it. Rose was a bit shocked at what Samukai had managed to do.

"It's upside down. They're digging in the wrong spot! How does anyone manage to do that?!" Zane held up a shuriken with a rope tied to it.

"The Golden Weapon is near." Zane threw his shuriken down, pulled the rope after the shuriken hit its target, and got the map. Kai looked at it and quickly made a decision.

"There's no time to waste!" Kai flipped off the tower. Jay was highly annoyed and confused.

"What's with that guy, always in a rush?" Kim sighed.

"Idiot! I'm going after him." She leaped off as well. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Metal or not, she's just as hot headed as he is."

Kai found the spot and was trying to push away the rock that covered it.

"Need some help Kai?" He turned to see Kim.

"I don't need your help." She went over and pushed the rock with him.

"You just don't want to admit that you need help. Sensei Wu said it, I'm a strong as steel, I can help you move it. We all could, but you rushed off without anyone else to help." The others came over. Cole glared at them.

"Hey, before you two run off again, you've got to remember, we're a team." Kai rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." Kim looked back at them.

"I was trying to say that. Now shut your mouth and help push." They all pushed the rock out of the way and saw the Scythe of Quakes in the mouth of a stone dragon.

"Whoa, that is so cool!" Jay's cry echoed out throughout the whole dig sight. Bree smacked him in the back of the head, not in anger, but more to show Jay that he was being stupid.

"Dude, shut it! You could let everyone know we're here!" Cole jumped on the statue and grabbed the Scythe.

"Don't be so paranoid. We're on the opposite side of the cave system Bree." Sam looked around nervously.

"I don't know Jay, she may be right. Caves and stuff bounce sound a lot right?" She stopped. Jay spoke up again while Cole got down and threw the Scythe to Kai, who had the tarp to wrap it in before putting it on his back.

"Hoping that they didn't hear Jay, now that we've got the scythe, lets sneak out of here before those boneheads are still busy." They all nodded and started walking out. None of them noticed the dragon's head moving slightly as they exited the cave. Sam smiled brightly.

"Well I guess we're almost ready to get out of here!" Cole stopped short as he nearly walked into Samukai, who was smirking at him as he pulled out his bone daggers. Without another word, everyone else pulled out their weapons and started plowing down the skeletons. Jay was making battle sound effects, which annoyed Sam.

"JAY THIS IS SERIOUS WILL YOU QUIT IT?!" He looked back at her and shrugged.

"Eh, but it's more fun this way!" Zane saw a skeleton sneaking up behind Kai and held up his arms.

"Kai, over here!" Kai nodded and took the Scythe, tossing it to Zane. They kept tossing it back and forth between all of them as Jay started to realize something.

"Hey guys, it's just like the training course! Over the planks!" He jumped over some skeletons, "dodge the swords," he went over a couple of swords as he got closer to another skeleton, "here comes the dummy!" Slowly, blue sparks floated around him until he actually started spinning in a blue, lightning tornado as everyone looked on in awe. Kai even stopped fighting a bit.

"Spinjitsu?! Jay what's the key?!" Jay kept fighting in the tornado, he himself in amazement of his own work.

"I'm just going through the motions!" He laughed a bit. "This is what Sensei must've meant when he said we already knew it!" Kai nodded and started saying it out loud.

"Over the planks, dodge the swords, here comes the dummies!" He was then engulfed in a fiery tornado as everyone else followed suit, Cole surrounded by brown earth, Zane in white ice, Kim in sharp steel colored metal, Rose in a tornado of violet tflowers, Bree by flowing winds, and Sam by orange tan sand.

The skeletons that had found the map were a bit away from the battle. The one wearing a battle helmet started laughing.

"He called you a dummy," he said, pointing at the other one, who wasn't happy.

"No, he called you a dummy!" Their eyes widened as they screamed and ran when Zane got closer in his tornado of white.

"I sense that you do not stand a chance." Samukai started to back up. He was no match against eight Spinjitsu Masters.

"RETREAT!" All of the skeletons ran off screaming as they stopped using their Spinjitsu. Cole started looking at his muscles.

"Ha! Guess they didn't want a second serving of these babies!" Everyone one else had one of those "oh my god" faces. Jay even face palmed, but Rose just took a look. "Good thing he didn't check out the merchandise in the back!" He turned around and Kim laughed.

"You talking about your flat butt Cole?" He didn't even respond. He was frozen in terror. She raised an eyebrow and turned around and then squealed in excitement. "OH MY GOSH IT'S A REAL DRAGON!" Everyone else turned around, terrified.

"I sense we won't be able to spin our way out of this one," said Zane as the dragon loomed over them. Bree rolled here eyes and grabbed his arm as she started running off, everyone short of Kim following suit.

"No duh Zane!" Kim just started walking towards the dragon, her eyes wide with amazement.

"I've always wanted to meet one…" Kai's eyes widened as the dragon released a loud roar, filled with Earth that caused a cave in, cutting Kim off from the rest of them.

"Kim!" He took the Scythe of Quakes and lifted it up, much to Jay's dismay.

"No Kai, bad idea! Sensei told us not to!" Kai glared at him.

"Then you'd better keep your mouth shut! We need to get Kim out of there!" He struck the boulder with the Scythe as the dragon nearly bit her head off. Zane went in there and pulled her out quickly before the Scythe ended up causing more damage and making the ceiling fall on the dragon. Before Kim could complain, they used their Spinjitsu to get out of a small crack and escape, immediately meeting Sensei Wu as they started cheering over their victory. Sensei Wu, however, was not pleased, and the fact that they were celebrating their victory made him angry.

"Enough!" They all turned to him, confused. "I told you not to use the Scythe!" They all pointed at Kai, which made him glare, especially at Kim.

"Hey, if it weren't for your stupid obsession with dragons, I wouldn't have had to use it!" Sensei Wu raised an eyebrow.

"Kim, what does he mean?" She looked down, embarrassed as she pulled down her hood.

"I tried to reason with the dragon. I mean, you placed him there to guard the weapons, surely I could make him understand that we were your students!" He only got more angry.

"And you thought that this was more important than the team?! You put yourself in danger and created a situation where everyone's safety was compromised!" She looked down.

"I-I'm sorry Sensei…" He turned away from her.

"We still have seven weapons left. Maybe next time you and Kai can get it right." His eyes widened as he took a step forward, filled with anger.

"Me?! I did what I had to! They took my sister and I wasn't gonna let Kim screw up my chances of saving her!" Sensei Wu turned around before Kim could respond.

"I will not have such infighting! You could've found another way around the problem, but you always look for the easy solution! Now we will go and you will remain quiet all the way had to the monastery!" He was about to reply but Sensei Wu turned away, and Kai grumbled quietly to himself as they started walking.

* * *

Samukai was in the Underworld, standing in front of the throne of an unseen figure. He was bowing apologetically, as if it would keep his master, Lord Garmadon, from becoming angry with him.

"Master… I have failed you. They have learned Spinjitsu, all eight of them, and they have the Scythe." He braced himself for punishment.

"Good." Samukai's eyes widened in surprise as he looked back up at Lord Garmadon. "Then my brother was there." He smiled, thinking he saw an opportunity.

"If I can just gather my warrior, we can-"

"No." Samukai flinched, even though Lord Garmadon's voice was calm. "Let them think they are winning." Samukai stuttered a bit, trying to comprehend what his master was planning.

"I, uh… do not understand."

"Everything is going to plan." He started with a soft laugh as it quickly grew.

 **Song Of Hope: Well there's chapter 1! I hope that I can keep writing this wonderful fic, and I have another already plotted out, but I won't start on that until I'm done with this one! R &R**


	2. Episode 2 King Of Shadows

**Song Of Hope: Thank you so much for the kind reviews! Unfortunately I can't reveal that info, but yes, Sam does have someone that I intend! I hope that you all enjoy this, because this story, unlike the original version I wrote, will continue until Nadakan, and then continue afterwards with some seasons focused solely on my OCs, as well as a Cole focused season, since the show hasn't really given us that yet. In fact, the Cole focused season will be the first one! But that's in the future. For now, just R &R**

The ninja and kunoichi were all on a ship in a great, icy wasteland, their zukins up to protect their faces from the cold. Cole was steering the ship as Jay leaned on the railing next to him, trying to occupy himself.

"I spy with my little eye something white," he said, trying to play a game with Cole, who sighed in annoyance and turned to him, keeping only one hand on the wheel.

"Could you try and be quiet for once?" He gestured to the wheel. "This ain't easy." Suddenly the ship jarred and Cole tightly gripped the wheel with both hands again. Jay made a grunting sound as he straightened out.

"I spy something _broken_." Sam was shivering and hugging herself tightly.

"C-Come on, a-anyone got a b-blanket?!" Kim rolled her eyes.

"Come on Sam this isn't really so bad." Sam rolled her eyes.

"M-Maybe for you," she replied, "b-but I grew up on the e-east coast of central N-Ninjago. I-It never gets cold there!" Rose smiled underneath her mask and walked up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Then now's the perfect time to get used to the cold! And even if you don't, I'm sure we'll head somewhere else warmer soon enough!" Kai was rubbing his hands together.

"No, I agree with Bree. We should have something than just a gi to keep up warm." He looked up at Sensei Wu, who was perched on one foot above on top of a pole. "If Sensei knows the way to the next Golden Weapon, why isn't he steering the ship? We've been drifting aimlessly for _miles_."

"Sensei's wisdom is beyond my own." Bree nodded, looking up at Sensei.

"Besides, why bother steering when he can sit up there like a monkey and make one of us steer?" They laughed at that, Sensei Wu cleared his throat to get them all to stop.

"The most powerful move in Spinjitsu can only be accomplished when all eight Elements are combined," he said as he turned around to face them. He quickly jumped down in front of them, striking a martial arts pose, doing one to match each word he said. "Metal! Earth! Sand! Flora! Ice! Fire! Wind! Lightning!" Jay walked over to them, now bored with Cole and much more interested in what Wu had to say.

"What happens when all of them are combined," he asked.

"The Tornado of Creation," Sensei Wu replied. "The ability to create something out of nothing." He spun his hands a bit and seemed to create a teacup full of hot tea out of nothing. "Metal, Earth, Sand, and Flora are the building blocks, but Ice, Fire, Wind, and Lightning are what shapes them. You must perfectly balance them." Kai started doing some silly moves, making Sensei Wu sigh. "No Kai! If done incorrectly, it will lead to disastrous consequences!" Kai rolled his eyes and kept making the fighting poses.

"Disastrous consequences. Yeah right!" Suddenly, the ship jarred as it hit something and stopped in front of an icy gateway, much like the ones before a temple. The sails completely froze over after impact.

"Uh, that wasn't there five seconds ago," said Cole, looking at the icy shore he hadn't meant to hit. Sensei Wu looked at the gateways.

"We are here," he said plainly. "This is the Ice Temple, and where you will find the Shurikens of Ice." They all nodded and got off the ship.

Once they were inside, they saw that the place was filled with skeletons frozen in ice.

"Whoa, looks like someone's already been here," said Cole, looking at all the frozen skeletons.

"Y-Yeah, l-looks like we're g-gonna end up like them s-soon," stuttered Sam, still rubbing her arms. "O-Or is that just me?"

"It's just you," said Kim, rolling her eyes.

They soon came across the Shurikens of Ice, floating far above them, underneath the head of a dragon.

"The Shurikens," said Zane with a hint of awe in his voice. Cole looked at them.

"Okay boys and girls, time to build a pyramid!" They all nodded. Cole, Kim, Kai, and Jay were on the bottom, Kai, Sam, and Bree were in the middle, and on top was Zane. The moment he grabbed the shurikens, he froze over. The dragon's head started moving and they all started running, the boys carrying Zane and the girls carrying Kim so she wouldn't try to befriend the dragon, much to her dismay. Once they turned around a corner, the corridor was too narrow and the dragon couldn't get through. The boys went so fast that they slipped and started sliding, so they sat on Zane and used him as a human sled. The girls sighed and kept walking as the boys crashed into a gateway, who started making noises of complaints over their pain from the sudden crash. Once the girls made it to where they were, they looked at Sensei Wu, who had gotten off the ship.

"Sensei, why didn't you tell us the shurikens would freeze whoever touched them," asked Rose.

"Simply because no one would've wanted to grab them if I did," he replied, pulling out a map. "Now, onto the next Weapon."

* * *

They were as a beach with jagged rocks in the water in front of the beach and steep cliffs up both sides of the beach. They were going through gateways that lead to the Sand Temple, which was not far up ahead. Sam looked behind herself and noticed that there were skeletons following them.

"Oh great, what do we do now?!" Cole turned and saw them, turning and holding out his scythe.

"Sam, go ahead to grab the Tonfas of Sand. Everyone else, stay behind and fight!" She nodded as everyone else engaged in fighting the skeletons. She ran into the temple, seeing tiki torches lit everywhere.

"This place feels like where my dad would go to church." She shrugged and ran further into the temple, finding the tonfas on what looked like an altar. She looked around and grabbed them, but then the ceiling opened up and a giant dragon appeared above her. She screamed and ran out before it landed, exiting the Sand Temple just as the rest of the ninja and kunoichi were scattering the bones of the skeletons they'd fought.

"Did you get the Tonfas," asked Zane. She smiled and held them up.

"Heck yeah I did!"

* * *

They were at the top of the Wailing Alps. They had been better equipped this time, with climbing gear and backpacks. They were all tied together as they climbed up, and Bree was at the top of the rope line.

"Guys, we've got company," shouted Kim, who was at the bottom of the line. Behind her were the skeletons, grinning as they used their own bones to climb up.

"Ugh, that is so gross," said Jay, who was behind Bree.

"Just focus on getting to the top first," said Cole, who was right above Kim. They all climbed up quickly, and soon Bree grabbed the Fans.

"Please don't blow me off the mountain," she said, hesitating to do anything else as she gripped the mountain tightly. When nothing happened, she cheered. "Thank you Fans!" She then looked up and saw a dragon flying down. " _Are you kidding me_?! What kind of dragon can fly up here at this altitude?!" She pulled out a collapsible snowboard out of her backpack and sled down the mountain, past the skeletons and away from the dragon. The others did the same, most of them making excited noises, but Sam was too busy shivering to feel even remotely excited about sledding.

* * *

They were all climbing what looked like a chain standing straight up with a heavy, metallic weight on the top of it in the middle of an electrical storm. Each of them had a backpack like the ones they had when they were climbing the mountain. Zane looked down and saw the skeletons chasing after them once again.

"We're being followed," he said, letting the others know since they weren't looking down. Jay nodded, at the top of the line climbing up.

"Then lets go!" He reached the top and grabbed the Nunchaks. "Alright!" He brandished them in the air to show the people down below what he had grabbed, but in a burst of lightning, a dragon appeared behind him. Jay didn't even flinch and just jumped off of the top, wings coming out of the backpack he wore. Once they saw it was safe, the rest of them jumped as well, flying out of there.

* * *

They were all deep inside some very metal rich mines, with golden and silver and other metals all around them. Soon, they were going past more gateways that lead to the Metal Temple.

"Is anyone else suspicious of the lack of skeletons," asked Cole.

"I sense that they are looking in the mine shaft," said Zane, looking around. "There is a large system of them here." Kim shrugged.

"Whatever, as long as we get the Chigiriki," she said nonchalantly.

"Looks like they figured out which mine shaft the Chigiriki was down," said Rose as she pulled out her sais, looking at several skeletons that had just come out of another shaft. They looked confused, but once they saw the ninja and kunoichi, they smiled and started walking towards them.

"Zane, Rose, Bree and I will take care of the skeletons," said Cole firmly, getting in a fighting stance with his scythe. "Everyone else, you guys go on ahead and take care of the Chigiriki." They all nodded. The ones who stayed behind pulled out their weapons and ran at the skeletons while the rest slipped into the Metal Temple.

"Geez, is everything in here made out of metal," complained Kai.

"Shut your mouth Kai," said Kim. There was a pedestal in the middle of the room with the Chigiriki of Metal on it. Kim smiled and walked up to it. "Ah, here we are." She reached out and grabbed it, but the moment she did, the pedestal lowered and the floor started to open up.

"I sense we are about to have another dragon encounter," said Zane in a panicked voice.

"No dip Sherlock," shouted Sam as she started to run. Kim looked down at the hole and saw the dragon start to emerge.

"Wait guys, this dragon's connected with my Element! Maybe I can reason with her!"

" _How do you even know it's a her_ ," shouted Kai, grabbing her arm and started running. "Come on Kim, the last dragon you tried to talk to nearly bit your head off!" She shook her head.

"No he didn't! He was just gonna give me a lick!"

" _You're insane!_ " He didn't say anything else after that. They just got out of the Metal Temple just as Cole finished tying the skeletons up.

"You got the Chigiriki?" Kai nodded.

"And Kim tried to befriend the dragon _again_."

"It was my element," she protested.

* * *

They were in what the map had shown to be an empty plain, but was truly filled with various flora of all kinds. Sam was sneezing like crazy, and her eyes were puffy.

"What's up Sam," asked Jay as they carefully tread through the flowers. Rose had yelled at them when they stepped on one of them since it was apparently a rare blossom.

"I have a mild pollen allergy," she said, sneezing just about in between each syllable. "Ew, my zukin is filled with mucus!"

"Well we're almost there," said Zane, "so you soon will no longer have to worry about your allergies. And we can do laundry when we return to the monastery." Sam nodded.

Soon they were in the center of what Rose had dubbed Eden. She saw the twin Sais, crisscrossed in the middle of the air. She smiled and grabbed them, but the moment she did, roots started coming out of the ground to form the dragon guarding the Sais.

"RUUUUN!" She started running away like crazy, still being careful not to crush the flowers though. The others just straight up ran until they lost sight of the dragon, at the edge of Eden.

"Something's bothering me," said Kai. "Why didn't the skeletons follow us here?" Rose smiled and plucked a few flowers and leaves.

"Rue, basil, rosemary, and osha are said to ward off evil." She shrugged. "Maybe it's true. Maybe they can't even get in this place because I definitely saw a lot of these." Kai crossed his arms over his chest.

"Sure, I guess." Not far away, Samukai was looking at them and laughing.

* * *

They were all around a campfire. Sensei Wu was sitting at the fire and meditating. Cole was playing the drums while everyone else, short of Zane (who seemed to be in a very meditative state as well), danced. Kai turned to Sensei Wu.

"Come on Sensei, join us!" His eyes started twitching as he looked up at them.

"There is still one weapon left!" He turned away and closed his eyes. "We must get our sleep." Rose laughed and grabbed his hands, pulling him up.

"Come on Sensei, we've gotten almost all the Weapons! I think it's time to celebrate that!" He almost fell over from the sudden movement, but straightened out and pulled his arms out of her grasp.

"Well, alright then, just don't handle me like that again. I may be strong, but I am still old." He struck a very strange pose. "Now this move is very special."

"But if done incorrectly," asked Zane, breaking out of his meditation, "will it lead to disastrous consequences?" Everyone laughed.

"Zane, is that a joke," asked Kai, still laughing.

"I never thought you'd find a sense of humor," exclaimed Sam. Cole started playing the drums again and Sensei Wu started dancing.

"Shake what your mama gave you!" He grabbed both ends of his mustache, which made everyone laugh. "Spin round! Oh yeah, I put my foot-!" They all kept laughing and everyone grabbed a partner, dancing like idiots. Bree forced Zane to dance, Sam grabbed Jay, Kim and Kai actually got along long enough to dance, and Rose danced with Sensei Wu.

* * *

Later on in the evening, they all fell asleep. Kai was sleeping soundly with Kim next to him when he heard a voice.

"Kai. Kai!" He opened his eyes, making a noise of confusion as he looked around.

"Is that-?" He sat up and saw Nya.

"I have to go," she said, running off.

"Nya, wait up," he said rather loudly as he got up. "Slow down! Why're you running so fast?!" Kim woke up and groaned.

"Kai, shut up, I'm trying to sleep." She rubbed her eyes and saw he was running off. "What? Who's that he's chasing?" She stood up and blindly went to grab her chigiriki and put it on her back. Since it was dark, she didn't notice she grabbed the wrong one as she went to chase Kai.

* * *

Kai pushed some bushes aside and looked around.

"Nya, where are you?!" He saw a grand temple built into the side of a volcano, and watched and Nya opened the doors and ran in, leaving them wide open.

"Kai," she said quietly. He ran up to the doors. Kim pushed the bushes aside and watched him run in.

"Another temple? Is this the Fire Temple? Then this must be where the last Golden Weapon is!" She looked down in confusion. "But how could that girl even know that?" Her eyes widened. "Unless it's a trap by Lord Garmadon!" She ran towards Kai, still on the threshold of the temple. "Kai!" Once he got through the doors, they slammed closed behind him.

* * *

He looked around the temple, then at the door as it slammed closed behind him.

"What?" He looked ahead and saw the Sword of Fire, then he saw Nya in front of it suddenly. "Nya!" She smiled at him.

"Don't worry," she said as her appearance and voice started to shift into that of Garmadon's shadow, "I'm right here brother!" He took a step back as he saw that and heard Kim slamming on the door.

"Kai! Get out of there! It's a trap!" Lord Garmadon laughed as Kai narrowed his eyes at him.

"Garmadon." He reached for his sword, only to realize he hadn't grabbed it before he left.

"Forgot something," Garmadon asked in a mocking voice.

* * *

Outside, Kim grabbed the Chigiriki, trying to use it to bash the handle with the weight. She hit it once and then her eyes widened.

"This isn't my chigiriki! This is the Chigiriki of Metal! I accidentally took a Golden Weapon!" She panicked, but then a thought came to her head. "O-Okay, let's just… let's see what this baby can do!" She held up the staff part and let the weight spin around. As she did that the Chigiriki started to glow and collect metal shards around the weight. She smiled and stopped spinning it, letting the metal shards hit the door. "I can do this! Just gotta spin them around for long enough to make a big shard that can break down the door!"

* * *

Kai looked at the door and saw the metal shards in it.

"What's happening?!" Lord Garmadon laughed.

"Either she has unlocked her True Potential, which I doubt a pathetic girl like her could, or she has brought me a Golden Weapon. It's surprising that she's able to so easily wield the Chigiriki of Metal. A chigiriki on its own is a very hard weapon to wield properly, much less a Golden Weapon." Kai glared at him.

"Hey, she isn't pathetic! And why are you even here?! You're banished, trapped in the Underworld! You can't hurt me!"

"No I can't, but I can get you to remove the Sword of Fire for me." Kai looked up at him as he started to float above him.

"I don't think so," said Kai with a determined voice.

"Are you sure about that," he asked, the smirk almost visible on his face with the tone of voice he used.

Suddenly, in the back of the temple, Nya dropped down above a pit of lava, tied up in chains. She looked at her big brother, a panicked look on her face.

"Kai!"

"Nya!" He started running towards her, but Garmadon laughed.

"If you don't remove the Sword, how else will you cute the chains to save your precious little sister," he questioned.

"You know it's a trap," she said, pulling at her chains. "I can- free my- self!" She grunted and let go of the chains. "Okay, that's really tight," she said in a defeated voice. Suddenly she started falling towards the lava again and started screaming.

"Nya!" He started running towards her.

"Tick tock. Tick tock," said Garmadon in a taunting voice. Kai stopped and closed his eyes, thinking about it, but once he opened them they were filled with decisiveness and determination. He ran towards the Sword of Fire and grabbed it.

"NINJAGO!" He used his Spinjitsu to get over to Nya and cut her chains, catching her and bringing her safely to the temple floor. At the moment, Kim finally slammed the door open.

"Kai!" She looked at him with Nya, then looked at the Sword of Fire. "You… already did the stupid thing didn't you?" He glared at her.

"I had to save my sister!" Kim sighed and face palmed, walking in.

"So that's why you ran off like an idiot. You really thought Lord Garmadon just suddenly released your sister out of nowhere?" He shrugged. "NINJAGO!" She used her Spinjitsu to get over to him. "Well next time use your brain." Garmadon started laughing.

"Oh yes Kai, you should listen to your little friend. After all, she was so helpful and useful, wasn't she?" Kim went rigid. "She's so talented, with bringing another Golden Weapon to me and using her great skills to cut the chains for you so that you didn't have to use the Sword of Fire to save Nya. She was so useful." She balled her hands into fists, shaking as she tightly closed her eyes. "Oh? Did I strike a nerve?" Kai looked at her, worried and confused.

"… Kim?"

"Shut up." Her eyes snapped open and she looked at Garmadon. "Shut up shut up shutupshutup _shutupshutupSHUTUPSHUTUP_!" She ran at him and tried to kick him, but she just went through him and crashed into the wall.

"KIM!" Kai turned to Nya. "Stay close Nya!" He started running towards Kim, Nya following behind him.

"Trust me, I'm not going anywhere," Nya said. Kai held out his hand to Kim.

"Are you alright," he asked. She pushed his hand away and shakily stood up on her own, supporting her weight on the Chigiriki.

"I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help. I'm fine on my own." He stepped away, not saying anything else. Garmadon's shadow self loomed over them.

"A marvelous attempt at defeating me Kim. The only problem here is that I'm a shadow." Kai smirked.

"And that means you can't hurt us!" Garmadon laughed.

"That's a logical assumption, but oh so very wrong." Kai and Kim's shadows pulled away from themselves. Nya's eyes widened as she saw that.

"Kai, look out!" Kim's shadow kicked her in the stomach. She grunted and held her stomach, but stood back up straight.

"This is gonna be hard," she said. Kai looked back at Nya.

"Stay back Nya!" She hid behind a rock.

"Stay close, stay back, make up your mind!" Kai started slashing at his shadow while Kim swung her Chigiriki at hers. All that happened was that it went through the shadows, but then their shadows kicked them both back in sync. Nya glared at the shadows and Kai and Kim landed next to her.

"That's not fair!"

"Oh, am I being to hard," Garmadon asked mockingly as the shadows multiplied into a countless number. Kim was shaking a bit and stood back with Nya. But Kai went right at the shadows, trying to attack them, but getting beaten up in the process. One of the shadows kicked him so hard he let go of the Sword of Fire.

"KAI!" Kim looked down, wiping her eyes. "Garmadon's right, I am useless!" Her shadows started coming towards her. She shook and started backing up, clenching the Chigiriki tightly as one of Kai's shadow copies picked up the Sword of Fire. Kai looked at the shadow holding the Sword in despair when suddenly, Sensei Wu landed nearby and started fighting them using his own shadow. He used finger shadow puppets to scatter moved of the shadow figures, giggling as he did it. The shadow Kai holding the Sword ran up to Sensei Wu, but he used his shadow to kick him in the stomach before grabbing the Sword, landing in front of the shadow shaped like Garmadon.

"Brother," said Garmadon in a mocking tone, "I see you protect two, but what of the other six?"

"They are safe," he proclaimed, "far from your grasp Garmadon!"

"I wouldn't be so confident," said Garmadon, putting his hands together to show them what had transpired.

* * *

At the campsite, Cole was hugging one of the drums to him as he slept.

"Cole, I know you enjoy your sleep and all but maybe you can _**wake up and save us**_ ," called out Jay. When Jay did that Cole woke up and saw a skeleton in front of him. He gasped and turned to grab his scythe but another skeleton was holding it. He turned and saw Zane and Jay tied together while the girls were tied together next to them, but hanging from a tree. Rose looked over at Cole with panicked eyes.

"Cole!"

"Rose!" He tried to get over to her, but Samukai hit him with the Tonfa of Sand in the gut, making him grunt and hold his stomach. Samukai started laughing.

"I believe these all belong to Lord Garmadon now!" The skeletons started cheering. "Tie up the last ninja!"

* * *

Sensei Wu looked horrified at the vision Garmadon had shown him.

"My brother must not unite for eight Weapons," he said, turning towards Kim. "Give me the Chigiriki of Metal! We must keep them apart!" She looked nervously and ran over towards, him, handing him the Chigiriki. Garmadon looked angered and started shouting.

"Awaken guardian of the deep," he shouted as they started heading towards the exit. "You must not let them escape!" Sensei Wu landed on the top of the dragon's head just as it broke through some rock and rose up from the lava before jumping back. Kim looked at it, feeling much calmer now that she saw the dragon. It started roaring at them, getting closer as Nya started screaming. It brandished its tail and purposefully hit several stalactites by the front of the temple, blocking off the exit. Kim looked amazed and impressed, but in a respectful sort of way.

"He's so intelligent… he thinks of a way to trap us instead of just randomly lashing out." Kai looked around to see if there was another exit.

"There's no way out! He's taken away all of our options!" Kim looked at Sensei Wu.

"Sensei, you placed him here! Can't you just tell him that we're here to protect the Sword?" Sensei Wu held the Sword of Fire and the Chigiriki of Metal in his hands, the flat of the blade across his palm.

"The dragon will not listen to me anymore, not after so many years. There is only one way to take the Sword of Fire and the Chigiriki of Metal out of this place." With that, he searched for a drifting rock and jumped onto it, flowing to the back of the room.

"Sensei, what are you doing," cried out Kai in a worried, confused, and panicked voice. Kim finally looked away from the dragon and her expression mirrored Kai's.

"Sensei, wait, where are you going?! Where does that lead?!"

" _No_ , you _**fool**_ ," said Garmadon in a horrified and angry voice. Sensei Wu sat down on the rock.

"Each Temple has a portal to different realms. The Fire Temple can either lead to the Dragon's Keep, or to the Underworld. I do not know to which I will go, but either choice is safer than letting the Weapons be united by Samukai and Garmadon."

"Sensei, you can't mean that you're going there," she said, looking towards him. "Please, don't do this! Let me do it! I messed up and brought the Chigiriki of Metal here! I couldn't even be brave enough to face Garmadon! Let me do it! At least I'll be useful for once!" He shook his head.

"No Kim, you mustn't let yourself think this way. You are not useless. There are so many great things that you will do in your life. Besides, this is my burden to bear. If only you both understood the past." Kai shook his head.

"No, this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't come alone! I should've woken you up and asked for your advice! I didn't even think about how suspicious it all was! Sensei please!" Sensei Wu just grabbed a teapot and a teacup out of nowhere and started to pour it when he finally hit the back of the cave and plummeted. Kai and Kim both cried out "no" loudly and Kim grabbed onto Kai, sobbing into his shoulder. He was surprised, but gently wrapped his arms around her and pat her back gently.

Garmadon's shadow looked towards where Sensei Wu had just been, the sneer almost obvious on his less than face.

"Then I will see you there, brother!" With that, he disappeared. Kim sobbed something into Kai's shoulder, blaming herself. He gently stroked the back of her head, smoothing her black hair in the process.

"It's not your fault Kim. It's mine. None of this would've happened if it weren't for me." Nya looked at the dragon, backing up a bit.

"Uh, guys, I know you two maybe are having a moment, but instead maybe we should try and get out of here?" They let go of each other, Kim facing the dragon as she wiped her eyes.

"M-Maybe we can do something…"

* * *

At the campsite, they had tied Cole up with Jay and Zane, with Cole and Zane hanging upside down. Rose was glaring at Samukai as she struggled with the ropes, trying to free herself.

"We're gonna get out of here and kick your butts! Or at the least your pelvises since skeletons don't have butts!" Samukai laughed.

"Feisty. But you won't be escaping from here." He turned towards his army. "To the Fire Temple!" They all started cheering until Garmadon used the surface of a nearby tire to talk to Samukai.

"My brother has taken the Fire Sword and the Metal Chigiriki to through the portal in the Fire Temple! Hurry! Either return home or go to the Fire Temple to see if he has gone to the Dragon's Keep!" He disappeared, leaving an entire army of confused skeletons.

"Uh…" said Samukai. "To the Underworld then I guess?" He nodded. "Yeah, _to the Underworld_!" The skeletons cheered. The one with an eye patch held up his sword high as he cheered, but then when his arm fell back down it was just a stick in his hand. He looked at it in confusion before the skeleton with the helmet walked over.

"What happened to your weapon," he asked, annoyed. The other one just shrugged.

"Eh, must've left it in the Underworld." The one with the helmet sighed and walked away and the one with the eye patch just threw the stick behind him.

Once they all drove off, Cole groaned.

"Great, now what," he asked loudly in complaint. Jay smiled and held up the hand he had managed to free, holding up a sword.

"Now, we get out of here." Sam's eyes widened at the sword.

"Jay, how'd you get that?!" Jay smirked a bit.

"I got my arm free and stole it from a dumb skeleton!" Cole's eyes widened.

"Uh, Jay, before you do that you might wanna," he stopped as Jay cut the ropes and freed them, making Zane and Cole land on their heads, groaning, "cut the girls free first so that someone can catch us." Sam glared.

"Hey, it would still hurt us! Besides you guys are bigger than us, I don't know if any of us could even catch you!" Bree shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not, but can you just _get us down?!_ " Jay walked over and stood under Sam.

"Okay, okay, I'm here." He cut the ropes, cutting the girls free. Jay dropped the sword and caught Sam, while Zane and Cole caught Bree and Rose.

"You okay Rose," Cole asked as he let her down. She nodded and threw up her zukin.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Now let's get those guys!" She started running off towards where the skeletons had been heading, Cole watching her leave. Sam looked at her running off.

"Stop staring boys, we've got some skeletons to catch!" She grabbed her tonfas, which the skeletons had left on the ground, and Rose's sais, chasing after her. The others picked up their weapons, with Bree grabbing Kai's sword and Jay grabbing Kim's chigiriki. With all their zukins up, they were ready for battle

* * *

Samukai was yelling at the driver of the car he was in.

"Faster! We need to go faster to cross over to the Underworld!" The skeleton nodded and started pushing the pedal to the floor. Several vehicles in front of him started disappearing in a flash of light. The ninja and kunoichi were jumping from tree branch to tree branch, following them and somehow managing to match their speed, the wind pushing them faster, but somehow not pushing the skeletons to go faster.

"There they are," shouted out Cole. They kept following them for a good distance before Samukai started shouting again.

"Faster! We'll never get home at this rate!" The skeleton driving nodded and started to go faster, and just as they hit the right speed, they started to slow down. "Rrgh, what's wrong?" He looked towards the back and saw that Cole had cut a chain loose, pulling on it hard, his scythe handle through one of the links to give him more leverage. Zane jumped down from the trees and as two of the skeletons stood up to fight him he ducked down, the skeletons getting knocked off by a low hanging branch. Rose jumped off a branch and kicked the driver out of the vehicle. Samukai shoved her aside and made her roll to the back of the vehicle, where the weapons were locked up, before getting in the driver's seat.

"GET THEM," he cried out as Jay jumped onto the front of the vehicle, several skeletons surrounding him. He just smirked and used his Spinjitsu to send several of them flying as Rose got a grip on the back of the vehicle, her eyes widening at what she saw.

"The Golden Weapons!" Bree dropped down next to Rose.

"Lemme see if," she reached under her hood, digging in her messy hair, "ah, here it is!" She pulled out a bobby pin as Jay came to the back, looking at the lock.

"I got this! HI-YA!" He punched the lock and then immediately cried out in pain. Bree rolled her eyes.

"Go help Cole or something, he's on that vehicle over there. Let me try picking the lock." He nodded as Bree started on the lock, jumping onto the vehicle Cole was fighting on, a good couple of feet lower down than him.

"Hey Cole," he started before getting bashed in the throat with the blunt side of Cole's scythe. He began to sputter as Cole got rid of the skeletons he was fighting before jumping down to Jay's level.

"Jay! Sorry, I didn't see you!" Some skeletons tried to sneak up behind Cole, but Sam jumped in and kicked them off.

"Guys, you gotta be aware of what's going on or else you'll sink! I mean, or else you'll die!" On the front of Samukai's vehicle, several skeletons surrounded Zane, pushing him off the front so that he was clinging to the teeth of the head that was the front of the vehicle. Soon, Samukai sped up to the point where he could break through, the speed knocking all of them off as Samukai crossed over into the Underworld, leaving a flame trail where his tires had been. Bree held her head, groaning.  
"I was almost done with the lock! Almost!" Lightning shot across the sky, bringing thunder with it as they all stood up. Jay said something inaudible due to being struck in the throat, but Cole sighed.

"We know. You don't need to say it Jay. We know we've lost." Rose looked around.

"Where are we even?" Sam shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but I know how to get back." Zane's eyes widened.

"You do?" She shrugged.

"Sure, I mean it's not that hard to just remember the path we were taking. Come on, let's go!" She started running. The others just shrugged and followed her.

* * *

In the Underworld, Sensei Wu woke up with a start from his fall, holding the Sword of Fire and the Chigiriki of Metal tightly, his tea set broken nearby him. He stood up and started walking around.

"Hm, the Underworld. So I didn't end up in the Dragon's Keep." He saw a nearby bridge, with skeleton warriors making their rounds. He turned and hid behind the rocks as some came by, pulling out a blanket and wrapping the two weapons in it to hide their glow. He started running carefully, staying hidden as he tried to reach his destination.

* * *

Zane lead them all to the Fire Temple, using the signs that Kim and Kai had left behind that lead a trail towards it. Cole ran up to the door and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Kai," he said, cupping his hands around his mouth to make him louder, "Kim! Sensei!" Rose looked around the place.

"Is this another temple? Maybe this is where the Sword of Fire is!" Sam rolled her eyes, throwing off her mask.

"Didn't you hear that shadow thing? It said that Sensei Wu had taken the Fire Sword and the Metal Chigiriki to the Underworld, or this place called the Dragon's Keep. And since Samukai had been meaning to come here, obviously Kai and Kim must've come here to get the Fire Sword, and Sensei followed them. Then somehow they all ended up in the Underworld or the Dragon's Keep. Samukai is checking the Underworld first for some dumb reason instead of coming here first, which is the smarter thing to do." They all stared at her, making her blink. "What?"

"Um, how'd you figure all that out," asked Bree. Sam shrugged.

"I didn't, that's my best guess. But I'm almost never wrong," she said proudly. Zane threw off his zukin.

"Continuing on, I sense that neither Kai nor Kim is here any longer, and we already know Sensei Wu is not. There is only us here. The end is drawing near. Lord Garmadon will soon have all eight weapons of Spinjitsu." Rose threw off her zukin and tapped her chin.

"How's he even gonna use them? Like half of them are dual wielded Weapons. Tonfas, sais, shurikens, and fans are two, although the rest are a singular Weapon. Hm, if we have four single Weapons, and four double Weapons, that's like, twelve Weapons. What's he gonna do, grow twelve arms?" Bree shrugged.

"I don't know, but the fans can fit together like one weapon, maybe the other weapons can do that too? Like turn into one?" Cole glared at Bree.

"Who cares?! All of the people who were just here are now in the Underworld or the Dragon's Keep, wherever that is! Either way, Samukai is going to unite the Weapons! We can't keep him from going inside the temple if they barrel over the doors with their vehicles! Ninjago is doomed!"

"No it isn't!" They all looked up at the voice that sounded oddly like Kai's, and saw Kai and Nya on the dragon from the Fire Temple, while Kim was on the back of the dragon from the Metal Temple. Kim was smiling brightly, letting her hair flow in the breeze as they landed. Cole screamed like a little girl and hid behind a nearby, strangely convenient rock. Sam looked up at them in total shock.

"YOU MEAN I WAS _WRONG_ ," she shouted out in anger and confusion. "I'M _**NEVER**_ WRONG!" She started freaking out, talking to herself while Rose just sighed.

"What a baby," Rose said as she looked back up at Steel.

"I knew I could befriend the dragons," Kim said excitedly, jumping off the dragon and going up to all of them, short of Sam, who she ignored, "I _told_ you guys! See, I had Kai talk to Flame, that's what he named the dragon, that Kai wasn't bad and that we were trying to protect the Weapons! Then the temple like split open and we went to go get the other dragons and first we went back to the Metal Temple and found Steel, that's what I named my dragon, and then the dragons talked and now she's just the sweetest thing ever!" Nya smiled as Kai jumped off of Flame.

"Our father used to tell us stories about the dragons, how they were mystical that belonged to another world, but could go between ours and theirs as they pleased. Maybe they can go to the Underworld too. It's certainly worth a shot." Cole looked at the three of them like they were trying to kill them all.

" _Are you insane_ ," he asked, staying safely behind his rock. Kai turned towards Flame and smiled underneath his zukin.

"He's actually quite a softie now that he knows we're on his side." Flame started nuzzling Kai with his head. Nya giggled and Jay looked up at her, instantly struck with her appearance and the way she talked. He tried to say something, but just strangled noises came out. Zane moved next to him.

"He cannot talk, but he is wondering if you like blue." The girls rolled their eyes, but Nya smiled at Jay.

"It's my favorite color." Jay he managed to get out a breathy, mangled 'yes' as Nya jumped off of Flame, Kai shaking his head at his sister's words and Jay's reaction. Rose walked up to Silver, who eyed her and blinked.

"So, you're telling me that these things can go to the Underworld?" Kim shrugged.

"They might be. We don't know for sure. There's apparently a portal to the Underworld through the Fire Temple, but Sensei said it can also lead to the Dragon's Keep. I'm guessing the Dragon's Keep is where the dragons are from, but we should check the Underworld first, just so that we can check for Sensei, and maybe get the Golden Weapons back from the skeletons." Bree looked at her in confusion.

"How'd you know the skeletons had the Golden Weapons?" Kim gave them a serious look.

"Garmadon was here, but, not really. He showed us the attack on the camp. He was a shadow, and even as a shadow he's extremely powerful and terrifying." She started shaking just the slightest bit. Kai put his hand on her shoulder.

"He really was. So we've gotta hurry up and get the Golden Weapons away from him. He's already powerful as a shadow, let alone as a flesh and blood person with the Weapons that created Ninjago." He looked at his sister. "Nya… you have to stay here. You don't have any training." She nodded.

"I understand. Come back to me in one piece, okay?" She hugged him tightly, with him patting her back. "I'll keep a candle lit outside the shop until you return." He nodded and jumped on Flame, with Kim getting on Steel.

"Okay then Nya. Boy and girls, it's time to get to the Underworld!" Jay and Zane jumped up on Flame while the girls jumped on Steel. Cole looked at the dragons nervously.

"Uh, you guys go on ahead, there's not enough room on either of those… things." Kim smirked.

"Well that's what we're getting the others for." Cole's eyes widened.

"The what?"

* * *

Cole was gripping tightly onto a pole on the dragon riding saddle that Kai had put together at Four Weapons after getting all the dragons. Everyone one else was having fun riding as the sun came up. He looked over at Kai and Kim.

"So how do we cross over into the Underworld," he asked, in total fear. Before he could be answered, the dragons started plummeting towards the ground, making him once again scream like a little girl.

"I THINK THIS IS HOW," screamed out Kai as they kept falling. The dragon started spinning, as if they were drills, breaking through realms. Cole's eyes were closed shut as they entered a system of tunnels.

"Is it over," asked Cole in a weak voice.

"Not unless the Underworld is a lot of tunnels," replied Rose. Bree shrugged.

"As long as these dragons know where we're going I don't care." The dragons all split off, going in different directions until they met up again, soon going through a swirling black pit with a violet glowing swirl in the middle. They passed through what seemed to be pure black space until finally they landed in the Underworld, skidding to a stop as everyone was flung off the dragons and landed on the ground, rolling until they all slowed to a stop.

"Solid ground," exclaimed Cole, kissing the ground softly before standing up. "I never thought I'd miss you so much!" Sam snickered, now over her earlier meltdown.

"You and your element really deserve each other." Zane looked around.

"Your sister's hypothesis was correct Kai. We are now in the Underworld." He surveyed the area and saw what looked like a dark temple. "Sensei is in there, as well as all of the Golden Weapons. It seems that we were right to come here first, and not the Dragon's Keep." Jay looked around and tried to cough something out, but he went unheard, but he gestured to the skeletons, who stopped a cart from going into the dark temple.

"Hold up," said the one with the helmet. "Nothing gets through without inspection!" The skeleton with the eye patch smiled as he pounced onto the cart.

"NINJA SEARCH!" He knocked every single item out of the cart before jumping back next to his helmet buddy. "Okay, clear to pass." The one with the helmet sighed.

"NUCKAL," he exclaimed in frustration, "HELP THEM PICK UP!" Nuckal just shrugged.

"Come on Cruncha, it's not so bad," he said, looking at his partner.

"Do it or else I'll take away your doughnut rights." Nuckal squealed and started putting the items back in the cart.

The ninja and the kunoichi were jumping from stalactite to stalactite, grabbing on tightly as to not fall. Jay noticed, however, that they weren't really stalactites, but spider legs. He tried to say something, but his voice just wasn't coming out. Cole looked over at Cole.

"Can I just say that it's been an absolute pleasure since Jay lost his voice?" Kim frowned.

"Cole he's your teammate. Besides, he reminds me of my brother, for some odd reason." The legs started moving and she looked up before seeing that they were spider legs, screaming heavily before letting herself fall, curling up into a ball once she hit the ground. The spiders shook the rest of them off and they all plummeted to the ground, falling around Kim. Nuckal looked at them and tapped Cruncha's shoulder.

"Uh, if there are more than one ninja, is it ninjas or ninja?" Cruncha thought about that.

"I think it's just ninja." Nuckal nodded.

"Okay, then what about girl ninja? I can tell some of them are girls." Cruncha thought about that.

"Hm, I think they're all just ninja." Nuckal nodded.

"Oh, okay. NINJA!" He pointed at the fallen ninja and kunoichi. The three girls that weren't on the ground glared at Nuckal.

"WE'RE KUNOICHI," they all shouted in unison. Either way, the skeletons started creeping up on them. Cole looked around.

"I count 5 boneheads to every one of us if we can get Kim back in action. But even if, I think I like these odds!" The spiders descended from the ceiling and surrounded them. Bree looked back towards Kim, then at the others.

"Anybody got any bright ideas?"

* * *

Sensei Wu ran down a set of spiral stairs before jumping down the last few flights and running into a throne room of brimstone and bone. There were bone bridges, leading from the entrance to a platform surrounded by a fiery pit, and from that platform leading to an empty throne.

"Brother," came Lord Garmadon's voice from behind Wu. Sensei Wu turned around and saw a man with a purple/black skin, with bones that glowed and shone underneath his skin and muscle and clothes he wore, which was not much more and a pair of tattered pants and a ruined shirt, with a blue slash tied at the bottom. He had glowing red eyes, and a black helmet with a human bone attached to it.

Sensei Wu gave him a menacing look and held the two Golden Weapons in each hand.

"Brother." Garmadon smirked.

"You really should've at least let me get one of those Wu. It's very hard to wield a Chigiriki one handed." His smirk turned into a glare. "Seize the Sword and the Chigiriki!" Several skeletons dropped down from the ceiling, surrounding Sensei Wu.

"NINJAGO!" He used his Spinjitsu to scoop them all up and throw them away, landing in a pile next to Garmadon. "Even if I can't wield them as well with both, I shall not easily give them up!" He laughed.

"No, you taught Moro that very well." Sensei Wu gasped.

"How do you know about Morro? He was my student well into your banishment!" Lord Garmadon shrugged tauntingly.

"It wouldn't be my fault if he managed to accidentally make his way to the Underworld, now would it be," he asked as Samukai snuck up behind Sensei Wu, holding all the weapons, using four new arms on his lower torso, which he was clearly not confident with. Sensei Wu was completely listening to Lord Garmadon, seemingly not even noticing Samuaki. "Of course he tried to fight me, to defy destiny, but I had Samukai quickly send him back to Ninjago. I almost admire him. Much more than that pathetic gray brat." He laughed. "She was shaking so much, it was like she was a maraca!" Sensei Wu glared at him.

"We all have our faults Garmadon! Now you will stop talking about my pupils this way!" He spun around and hit Samukai in the face with the weight of the Chigiriki. "And that is for thinking you can sneak up on me!" Samukai held his face and glared at Sensei Wu, walking towards him, pushing Sensei Wu towards the edge.

"You'll pay for that," he declared. Samukai slashed the Scythe at Wu, but he jumped over Samukai and landed on the other side. Garmadon went to his throne and sat in it, watching the glorious fight.

"Teach him a lesson," ordered Garmadon.

* * *

"Anyone got any bright ideas," asked Bree. Rose closed her eyes and then opened them, smiling.

"Maybe not to defeat them, but at least to get Kim calm!" She looked at Sam. "Remember that song she taught us that she said she used to calm down her little sister whenever she had a bad dream?" Sam nodded.

"The Kookaburra Song right?" Rose nodded.

"Maybe if it works to calm down her little sister it'll work for Kim!" Bree turned towards Rose, glaring.

" _Do you really think a silly song about birds is gonna work at a time like this_?!" Cole glared at Bree.

"Don't yell at her, Rose and Sam actually trained with Kim for months before we met her!" He looked towards Rose. "How does the song go?" Rose smiled and cleared her throat, with Sam joining in.

" _Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree  
_ _Merry merry queen of the bush is she  
_ _Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra  
_ _Gay your life must be!"_

Cruncha and Nuckal stared at the group.

"Why are they singing about birds," asked Nuckal. Cruncha shrugged.

"Because birds eat spiders? I don't know!" Bree closed her eyes and joined in on the next verse.

" _Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree  
_ _Eating all the gumdrops she can see  
_ _Wait kookaburra, wait kookaburra  
_ _Leave some there for me!"_

The boys just looked at each other and shrugged, joining in on the last verse, while Jay just kinda swayed since he couldn't sing. They all sounded horrible.

" _Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree  
_ _Counting all the monkeys she can see  
_ _Stop kookaburra, stop kookaburra  
_ _That's not a monkey, that's me!"_

"S-Stop," Kim said weakly, "I-I'm fine… No singing…" Kai turned around and got on one knee so that he was at her level.

"You're not fine. It's obvious that spiders freak you out, and that's okay. Everybody's afraid of something."

"But sometimes we just need to get over it," said Cole, making Kai glare.

"Not helping Cole!" He sighed. "But right now we need you." He held out his hand. "Come on, get up. We all have your back." She looked at his hand and then at him, slowly taking it. He helped her stand up. She held her chigiriki, looking at the skeletons and ignoring the spiders.

"O-Okay, so, what are we doing? How are we stopping them?" Jay's eyes widened and he got an idea, turning to Kai and saying it, but no one could understand him.

"You feel a weird sensation," asked Cole.

"No, he obviously said he has constipation," said Bree. "That's really nasty Jay." Jay tried to say it again.

"You know what's a tarnation," asked Kim. He shook his head and said it again.

"You ate an odd crustation," asked Zane. Rose shook her head.

"No, he said he wants a red carnation!" Jay shook his head violently and tried to say it again.

"Oh, I got it, I got it," proclaimed Kai. "Two natives on vacation!" Sam shook her head.

"No, it has to be I hate my generation!" Jay sighed.

"Tornado _of_ _ **CREATION**_ ," he exclaimed as his voice came back to him as he said that. Everyone gave him a pat on the back in congratulations for getting his voice back.

"But it could lead to disastrous consequences," said Cole, ignoring Sam's latest "I was wrong" meltdown, which ended after only a little bit and she was calm again.

"But we don't really have any other choice," exclaimed Rose. "Come on Cole, it's our best bet!" Zane nodded.

"I can't sense any other way out of this." Kim nodded.

"Yeah but how do we start," she asked. Bree shrugged.

"Sensei said we had to balance the building blocks with what shapes them. I say we go in order of the substances, and then go with the shaping stuff he did." Cole nodded.

"Kim, you're up first then!" She gulped.

"Me?" Kai nodded.

"You can do this Kim! We believe in you!" She looked around at her teammates and saw the encouragement on their faces.

"Alright. METAL!" She started using her Spinjitsu, making the skeletons and spiders back up.

"EARTH!" He joined in with Kim's Spinjitsu and enlarged the tornado.

"SAND!" Her bright orange melded perfectly with the brown and gray of Kim and Cole's Spinjitsu.

"FLORA!" The violet flowers that started flowing into the streams around the tornado, making it a force of nature to be reckoned with.

"ICE!" The bright white light made the tornado get an ethereal glow.

"FIRE!" The bright flames that erupted into the tornado made it look as destructive as it was creative.

"WIND!" The wind made the tornado shoot up even more, feeding the flames and creating an even brighter glow.

"LIGHTNING!" The lightning crackled from the inside of the tornado, making it even more powerful than before.

The whole of the Tornado of Creation was almost tall enough to reach the top of the caverns. The force of it sucked up everything, the skeletons, their vehicles, the spiders, all of it. Once they all broke apart, they saw that they had created a magnificent bone and spider ferris wheel, with the skeletons trapped in it, unable to get out. Kai looked at his teammates.

"Come on, there's no time to waste!" They all ran towards the dark temple, where they thought Sensei Wu would be. They reached the entrance to the throne room and saw Sensei Wu fighting his hardest against Samukai. Kim went to step forward, but Kai put his arm in front of her. "No, this is Sensei's fight." Kim's eyes widened.

"Kai, a chigiriki is almost impossible to wield with one hand! It's a two handed weapon to control the chain and weight, since the staff is so long!" He shook his head again.

"He'll find a way. He has to!" The fight went on for a long time until Samukai used the Nunchaks to electrocute him while he was in midair, letting go of both the Chigiriki and the Sword.

"NO!" cried out Rose. "Sensei Wu, get up!" Garmadon looked at the Weapons that had landed in front of Samukai, an almost bored expression on his face.

"Bring me the eight Weapons." Samukai picked up the Chigiriki and the Sword before turning around towards Garmadon and smirking.

"No! You will obey me now!" Garmadon started laughing as the Weapons began to shake, lifting Samukai off the ground. Sensei Wu jumped away from them, joining the ninja and the kunoichi as they watched in fascination.

"No one can handle all of their power at once," said Sensei Wu. "It was foolish of you to pick them up Samukai." Samukai tried to release them, but the Weapons were fused to his hands.

"I can't let go! What's happening to me?!" Garmadon's laugh turned into a glare aimed at Samukai.

"Selfish fool! Did you think I wouldn't plan on your betrayal?!" Samukai looked at Garmadon with a pleading look.

"What's happening to me?!" Garmadon smiled and relaxed into his throne.

"You've fallen right into my master plan," state Garmadon. "Not even I can handle all of their power! But now that they are combined, it will create a vortex through space and time, allowing me to escape the curse that keeps me in this ghastly place! I will leave the same way it is said for our father to have entered here and created Ninjago!" Samukai disappeared, turned into a cloud of white dust as the Weapons formed a circle, spinning and creating a vortex with a golden circle around it. Garmadon stood in front of it.

"Father would not want you to do this brother," said Wu in a pleading voice. Garmadon turned towards Wu and glared.

"Father is no longer here, just like our mother!" The vortex became so blinding that they all had to cover their eyes. "Good and evil! There has always been a Balance! Where I go, the Balance can be destroyed! Soon, I will be strong enough to possess the eight Weapons, so I may recreate the world in my image!" He started walking towards the portal again, but then turned around to glare at Wu. "You, you were always his favorite! Always reminding him of our mother!" With that, he jumped into the portal and it vanished, the Golden Weapons falling to the ground. Sensei Wu jumped over to where they were, beckoning his students to follow him.

"He is gone, but he will return. Come, take your Weapons." Jay's eyes widened.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what?! Sensei, I thought you said these Weapons were too powerful for a mortal to use!" Sensei Wu nodded.

"They are indeed, but you tow are no ordinary mortals. You all are the chosen ones. You all have Elemental Powers lining up with each of the Eight Weapons. You are all of the same age. Do you think this is a coincidence? No, it is destiny. And it is destiny that you wield the Elemental Weapons until you are able to use your powers without them." He gestured towards them. "Now take them." One by one, they all picked them up. The ones that had been fused together, the Shurikens, the Tonfas, the Fans, and the Sais, became two Weapons once again when picked up by their rightful owners. "Garmadon may be gone for now, but he will return." Kai smiled under his zukin.

"Then we'll be ready for him," he proclaimed.

"And keep an eye out for him in case he has any more evil plans," said Cole, holding up the Scythe. Sensei Wu looked at all of them proudly.

"Then, I have done my part. The Balance has been restored. For now."

* * *

The clouds above Ignacia Village were clearing up, Nya was sitting inside the shop, a sad expression on her face as she waited for Kai. She sighed, almost giving up until she heard the beating of dragon wings. She looked outside excitedly and saw that the Dragons were all landing outside of the shop.

"Kai!" She ran outside and hugged him the moment he jumped off the dragon. Jay smiled as she pulled away.

"My turn!" Nya ran to him and hugged him as well, not in the least bit uncomfortable. At first Kai looked a bit upset, but then he smiled and just rolled his eyes. Kim stood next to him.

"I know how you feel. Little sisters grow up too fast." The whole village started cheering for the random strangers in pajamas who showed up on the backs of dragons. Nya pulled away from Jay and looked between him and Kai.

"I'm so happy you're back!" Kai smiled a bit sadly.

"For now." He stopped smiling. "But it's not over. Lord Garmadon will return." The crowd stopped cheering. Cole smiled and walked up behind Kai.

"And we'll be ready for him!" Sam smiled, holding her Tonfas.

"And we'll beat the snot out of him!" The group nodded and cheered, throwing their Weapons together before all being shot backwards, landing on their backs. Kai sat up and shook his head.

"Okay, we've gotta remember not to do that again!" Bree nodded.

"At least, if we do we've gotta be wearing heavy padding." Everyone laughed as they stood up.

"Maybe we should stick to high fives instead," said Jay, with everyone laughing, while Zane just looked confused.

"Was that a joke?"

 **Song Of Hope: And there ends Season 1 of Ninjago! As you can see, I'm keeping some things the same about the original version of this story, but changing others. I'm also trying to put in some early foreshadowing for some later seasons. This chapter was hard to write, but I'm sure it'll be worth the read!**


	3. Episode 3 Rise of the Snakes

**Song Of Hope: littlematchgirlness, please open up your PMs so that I can respond to your reviews privately instead of posting them in the ANs. If anyone bothers you over PM and they're harassing you, you can take screenshots, block them, and report them to the admins if you're worried about that.**

 **Continuing from that, good guesses, but Jaya forever, and also even if Lloyd is physically an adult, I still consider it pedophilia for anyone to date him that hasn't gone through the same thing as him. I know that technically it isn't, but anyone who knew him as a child wanting to date him as an adult is something I can't stand. Don't forget though that this is going all the way into Nadakan's story arch and then continuing for a few series after, so it could be one of the many other characters in this beautiful series, or it could be an OC. But I won't be doing Day of the Departed or Hands of Time, or any Ninjago season after Nadakhan. Even if in those my theories are proven to be non-canon, I still want a chance to flesh them out, such as my theories for where Zane got his powers.**

 **Also I have been making Ninjago videos. The playlist link is not working for here, but PM me if you want a link!**

 **Please keep supporting the story and I hope you all continue to leave kind reviews! R &R**

Sensei Wu was in his room, meditating as incense burned. He was, however, very much distracted by the sounds of fighting.

"Fire strike," shouted out Kai. "Oh my God is that the greatest move you've ever seen?!" Sensei Wu got up and was about to head to the training course, but he realized that it was truly coming from another room and followed it.

"Stop trying to do it yourself," said Cole. "We need to attack as a team!"

" _Zane_ ," complained Jay, "why are you wasting your special attack on _me_? You have to save it! Oh, fantastic! I'm out of lives!"

"But the lesson is on," said Zane excitedly, "and I am getting the hang of it!" Sensei Wu opened a door that lead to the game room, where all the boys were playing a fighting based video game. Sensei Wu went quickly over to the plug and pulled it out, making all the boys groan in protest while Sensei glared at them, letting them finish complaining before speaking further.

"Just because Lord Garmadon escaped through a vortex doesn't mean he won't return one day for the Golden Weapons of Spinjitsu!"

"But Sensei Wu, ever since he's been gone, Ninjago has had nothing but peace," said Zane.

"Yeah, peace is boring," Jay said, continuing on Zane's remark, "there's no one to save, there's nothing to do!" Cole leaned back, relaxing as he grabbed a slice of pizza.

"We can train tomorrow," he said. Sensei narrowed his eyes at him.

"Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today," he replied.

"Well," said Cole, holding up a slice of pizza, "I was gonna eat this slice of pizza tomorrow, so if that's the case," he started to take a bite but then Sensei Wu kicked it out of his hand, making Cole make a small noise in pain.

"No pizza for you! In order to reach your full potential, you must train!"

"Uh, remember when we did a little thing called the Tornado of Creation" Kai asked, smirking and quite obviously proud of himself. "I thought that was pretty insane!" Sensei Wu sighed.

"Oh, you four have merely scratched the surface of your full potential, and the same goes for the girls." He looked at the boys as they relaxed. "You have so many secrets that you have yet to unlock! You haven't even tried to reach into your Elemental Powers without your Weapons, nor have you even began to tap into the power your Golden Weapons hold!" He looked at the Sword of Fire, with a sizzling pizza slice on it.

Cole smirked and picked up his Scythe of Quakes.

"You wanna talk about secret powers," he asked. "Check this out." He used the Scythe to plug the game console back in, and the boys went right back into playing their game. They all started playing excitedly, making Sensei Wu grab his beard in frustration.

"Do any of you at least know where the girls are," he asked.

"I think they're all in Rose's room," said Jay. "Oh come on! Zane you just made me lose my last life! Oh wait it reset, I have several more lives! Ha ha!" Sensei Wu sighed once again and started going to their room. He knocked on the door.

"Girls, I'm coming in."

"Okay Sensei," came Rose's voice. He walked in and saw Sam sitting on the floor, doing a puzzle book, while Rose was sitting on her bed, braiding Bree's hair as she sat on the floor in front of her. "What's up Sensei Wu?" He looked and saw their Golden Weapons just sitting there in a pile.

"None of you are training either?" Sam shrugged.

"I'm training my brain, does that count." He looked over at her, a hand rubbing his temples.

"Sam, you have an eidetic memory." She nodded, not looking up from the puzzle book.

"That may be, but lately I haven't been able to get anything right! Puzzles are a good way to train the brain, and right now it's word puzzles."

"You do not need to be right all the time. A part of life is accepting that sometimes, you can be wrong." She looked up at him and glared.

"Not me! I have to be right! Being right all the time is a part of who I am!" He sighed and looked towards Rose and Bree.

"And what exactly are you two doing?" Rose smiled at him.

"I'm braiding her hair! Next we're gonna be doing make up! I offered to braid Sam's hair, but it's so damaged! What'd you do to it Sam, shower in salt water?"

"Yes." Bree rolled her eyes.

"Can we just get this over with? I'm doing a face call with my grandma later." Rose smiled.

"Then you'll look great when your grandma sees you!" Sensei Wu sighed.

"Have any of you even tried to use your Golden Weapons, to try and tap into them? They hold such infinite power beyond your comprehension!" Sam shrugged.

"They're magical objects. It won't take much to figure them out." He rubbed his temples again.

"Sensei, don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine," said Bree.

"Do any of you at least know where Kim is?" Bree shrugged.

"I think she's outside with Steel." Sensei Wu sighed and went outside, expecting to see Kim playing some silly game with her dragon, but was surprised to see that she was actually fighting with Steel. She was dodging attacks and using her Chigiriki to attack Steel, going until just before she would hit her, then stopping and pulling her Chigiriki back.

"Okay Steel," she said, smiling up at her dragon, "how about a little riding practice now? Fighting on dragon back? That sounds cool, right?" Sensei Wu smiled at her.

"That sounds like a very productive use of your time," he said, startling her and making her swing her Chigiriki at him, stopping before it could hit him.

"Sensei Wu? Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" He smiled.

"It is alright. I am just glad to see you training. No one else seems to be interested in improving themselves." She looked down sadly and kicked a small rock.

"No one else needs to." Sensei Wu frowned, then sat down at the porch, patting the spot next to him.

"Come, sit and talk." She shrugged and sat next to him as he pulled out a pot of tea. "I suggest tea for a troubled mind. I find that simple black tea is the best to help me relax. It may help you." She smiled and took a cup.

"Thank you Sensei." She started drinking her tea.

"Why do you think you need training more than the others," he asked, obviously worried for her. She frowned and looked down, holding her cup tightly.

"When Kai and I came face to face with Garmadon, I… I was terrified. At first I was doing my brave face, the one I've been showing all this time. But, when it came down to it, I was powerless. I couldn't even stand by Kai's side and fight with him, I just cowered behind his baby sister!" She accidentally crushed the cup in her hand with her frustration. "Garmadon was _right_! I _am_ useless! And then again in the Underworld I froze up and couldn't do anything just because of some spiders! Everyone else had to save me!" He patted her back gently.

"We all need others to save us from time to time Kim. As for Garmadon's statement, you are not useless. You are as strong as steel. But more than that, you were the one that was chosen to become a Spinjitsu Master." She looked at him.

"What do you mean?" He smiled, as if he was hiding something.

"Nothing more than you are special. You are the one with the power over metal. So keep training, and never let your doubt overcome you. And don't take up a habit of laziness like your other teammates." She laughed.

"Alright Sensei Wu. Even if the others aren't ready for it, I'll be ready for when Lord Garmadon returns." Nya ran out into the training course.

"Lord Garmadon, he's returned!" Kim started screaming and running around in a circle.

"I'm not ready I'm not ready _I'mnotreadyI'mnotreadyI'MNOTREADYI'MNOTREADY_ -" Sensei Wu put a hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down Kim. You are ready. Take your Weapon, and face him. You will do far better in a fight than anyone else in this monastery." Kim took in a deep breath, and then slowly let it out.

"You're right Sensei. I just need to calm down." She threw up her zukin, turning to Nya. "Where is he?"

"In Jamanikai Village!" Kim nodded.

"Thanks Nya! Steel!" Steel ran out of the monastery and started flying several feet below Kim. With the full confidence in herself and her dragon, she jumped and landed perfectly on the saddle, grabbing the reigns and heading to Jamanikai Village. Soon, all the other dragons followed after her, trying to catch up while so out of shape. Nya sighed.

"Will they ever reach their full potential," asked Nya.

"In time," he replied. "Maybe a long time. But in time." Unbeknownst to the both of them, there was someone spying on them, peaking over the roof.

* * *

Kai had a thoughtful expression on his face underneath his zukin as they all flew to Jamanikai Village.

"Do you guys believe what Sensei said about unlocking our full potential?" Sam shrugged.

"Sensei says a lot of stuff. I would know. He hasn't been wrong yet. I would know." Jay rolled his eyes.

"Yeah yeah yeah Sam you're super smart and stuff and remember everything." He turned to Kai. "But he could be onto something. I mean, since we got these Golden Weapons it's not like we've ever had to use them." Kim cackled from in front of everyone.

"That's what training is for! Watch this!" She took the Chigiriki of Metal and swung the weight around, slinging a giant ball of metal that Steel ate. "Good job Steel!" Cole's eyes were wide.

"I didn't know our dragons ate our elements! That… that would explain the ground that been going missing in the dragon's keep." Sam nodded.

"I thought they looked like bite marks." Zane thought about that.

"I suppose it makes sense, although Shard does like his regular food." He pat shard's head. Kim nodded.

"Well yeah but they need a healthy mix of both. Anyway, it looks like we're almost there." She smirked at everyone. "Wanna race?" They all groaned.

"It is unfair to pose a challenge you know you will win Kim," said Zane. Kim snickered.

"It's your own faults for being so lazy! You let your dragons get weak!" With that, she shot off and raced towards Jamanikai Village. Once she landed, she waited for the others. "You guys really need to work out your dragons!" Kai hopped off and rolled his eyes.

"Shut up Kim." The villagers were screaming and running around madly as they tried to escape from Lord Garmadon. The ninja and kunoichi went into the town center as they saw what looked like Garmadon's shadow getting closer. They hunched down and got ready to fight the

"Stay sharp guys," said Kai, staring straight at the shadow heading towards them. "Whatever happens, don't let your guard down." The laughter slowly turned into what sounded like a little boy's voice. Soon, a little boy walked out. He wore a black hoodie with ribs on it and a green five, the hood up and covering his hair. He had his hands up in the air, swaying them gently as he walked up to the fountain.

"It is I, Lloyd Garmadon!" He jumped up on the fountain, trying to get the attention of the villagers. "I demand all the candy in town!" They all lowered their weapons in confusion as Jay looked at all of them.

" _Lloyd_ Garmadon? I thought we were gonna face _Lord_ Garmadon," he said in equal complaint and confusion. Cole looked back at Lloyd.

"It's his son," he said, a bit annoyed as Jay groaned. "Looks like he escaped his boarding school for bad boys again. And to think we could've been doing Spinjitsu already!" Sam rubbed her temples.

"Please tell me his sister didn't get out too. She's even more of a pest than he is! She's actually good at being bad." Zane shrugged.

"I sense that it is only Lloyd here, but perhaps Lin has still yet escaped and gone to somewhere else." Rose shrugged.

"We can handle of a couple of kids if they're both here." They started walking up to the fountain. Once the villagers realized it wasn't Lord Garmadon, they started surrounding him, glaring. He gave them a panicked look.

"Uh, uh, give me your candy, or else I'll release the Serpentine on you!" They all started booing at him as the ninja and kunoichi cut through the crowd. Lloyd smiled and grabbed one of those cans of compressed spring snakes and opened it up, sending them towards the villagers. He looked pretty pleased with himself, but then was surprised and distressed when they started throwing vegetables at him. "No wait, I asked for candy, not vegetables," he complained, throwing the lid at the villagers but not hitting any of them, "I hate vegetables!" He dodged the produce projectiles pretty well, but a mass amount of them came at him in a single instance and he was covered in them.

They started walking towards Lloyd again but Kai stopped, grabbing a fake snake off the ground.

"He's gonna have to do a lot better than use old bed time stories to scare people," he said, pulling it and then letting go.

"The Serpentine are real Kai," said Zane with a hint of warning in his voice, like that of a mother telling her child not to touch a hot stove. "They are not something to joke about."

"Serpentine, real," asked Kai with a disbelieving look in his eyes. "We're talking about the ancient race of snake people who once ruled Ninjago and were supposedly locked underground!" Bree nodded.

"I gotta go with Kai on this one. I mean, first of all we know that the First Spinjitsu Master created Ninjago, the same guy who is also the father of Sensei Wu. The Serpentine were said to be before civilization, so unless these Golden Weapons we got and Sensei Wu aren't real, then the Serpentine can't be either." Sam shrugged.

"Well, we known Ninjago is several millennia old. Sensei Wu can't possibly be that old, right? Maybe there's just some in between stuff we don't understand, unless you guys all really think Sensei Wu is that old." Jay nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, listen to Sam! She's right! I think the tombs are all real!"

"Why would there be five warring tribes though," asked Kim critically. "Why not just be united or something? Then they'd be able to exact their revenge."

"You think humanity is any better," replied Rose.

"She is correct," said Zane. "Humanity is always fighting itself. Why should we think that any other intelligent life is any better than us?" Kai rolled his eyes.

"It's all like that cause it's an old wives tale! It was to teach us kids not to poke our noses where they don't belong. My mom used to tell me about them all the time! Come on, don't you think it's a little suspicious that no one's ever found their tombs?"

"That's because anyone would be a fool to look for them," exclaimed Cole, walking towards Lloyd again with the rest following him. "If there was anything I hated more than dragons, it was snakes, rubber or not!" They all dug Lloyd out of the garbage and picked him up as he made noises of protest, the other ninja helping him. "Don't worry folks, we'll take care of this, nothing to see here!"

"Put me down or suffer my wrath," he exclaimed, trying to wriggle out of the ninjas' grasp while the kunoichi looked on at them. "I'll give you until the count of three! One! Two!"

"What are we supposed to do," asked Kai, "spank him?"

"Two and a half!"

"Nah," said Sam, "hitting kids isn't right, no matter how annoying they are and how much you wanna."

"Two and three quarters!"

"Fair enough," he replied.

* * *

Lloyd was hanging on a sign for a baby products store from the seat of his pants, struggling to get down.

"You just made me your nemesis, mark my words," he proclaimed. "When I find Lin we're gonna get you guys back!" They all started laughing as Zane threw off his mask, going over to a woman's cart and purchasing candy for everyone. They all threw off their masks as they grabbed their candy so that they could eat it.

"Next time, try paying for your candy," said Cole, sticking a sucker in his mouth.

"Crime doesn't pay muchacho," said Kai. "You can take that to the bank." Kim nodded, taking a lick of her lollipop.

"Candy's a treat for a job well done, you don't get if you don't earn it." Jay took a couple bites off cotton candy.

"Mmm, cotton candy!" Rose chewed on a piece of gum.

"And bubble gum!" She blew a nice big bubble before it popped. Lloyd made incoherent noises of frustration before grunting and giving up, going limp.

* * *

Outside the village, they were all getting back on their dragons, their hoods back on so that the wind wouldn't hurt their eyes. Kai jumped onto Flame and accidentally knocked out some scrolls in what he thought was his bag. Zane grabbed them off the ground since he was nearby as Kai jumped off of flame, looking at the scroll in confusion.

"Huh? I don't remember putting this here," he said as he grabbed the scroll from Zane.

"That's Sensei's bag," said Zane, pointing at it. "You must've accidentally took it in the rush." Rose shrugged, walking over to them.

"It's not a big deal. I accidentally grabbed my make up bag." Kai unrolled the scroll as Jay and Cole walked over.

"What is that," asked Jay.

"It's a scroll windbag," replied Cole, rolling his eyes.

"I know it's a scroll," said Jay in an irritated voice as he moved a bit behind Kai so he could try to read it, "but it's written in chicken scratch!" Sam walked over to them and looked at the scroll before rolling her eyes.

"That's not chicken scratch you nimrod!" She pointed at the writing. "That's an ancient language of Ninjago! Ninjago used to be made up of several primitive tribes, each with their own writing and language! This is one of them!" Jay rolled his eyes.

"Not all of us can learn and remember everything instantaneously Sam! Now, do you know what it says?" She nodded.

"Of course. It's really easy to learn languages if you don't forget anything." She looked back at the scroll. "It says it's a prophecy of some sort. It's a bit hard to read, the writing's a bit erased and faded in some parts, but I think I can get a rough translation. 'Of all the Elemental Masters of Spinjitsu, there will be they who will don green and rise up to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all.' Hm, weird." Kim came over and looked at the scroll, noticing a picture peaking out.

"Hey Kai, roll the scroll out more. It looks like there's a picture." Kai squinted at the bottom of the scroll.

"Hey, you're right!" He rolled it out more and revealed a picture showing several small figures, their colors matching each of the ninja and kunoichi, with a much larger picture of a green ninja/kunoichi, with a large empty spot next to it.

"Hey, that looks like me," said Bree. "Huh, I kinda blend into the background of the, what's it called? That's definitely not paper."

"Parchment," said Zane.

"Yes, thank you Zane. I match the parchment." Kai looked at all of them.

"Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?"

"You mean how good I'm gonna look in green," asked Jay. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Come on guys, it's obviously me!" She jumped up on her dragon Barb. "I mean, I know I'm the Violet Kunoichi, but plants and green go hand in hand!"

"Technically I am the best," said Zane in a frank tone.

"Come on guys," said Kim, "it's gonna be me and we all know it! I mean, I _am_ the only one who's been training constantly!"

"Everyone stop it," exclaimed Cole, jumping in front of everybody. "Remember why Sensei brought us together in the first place. We weren't meant to see this and probably for a good reason." He held out his hand and Kai gave him the scroll. "Come on, let's go back home. We have training to do. We were completely unprepared when we thought it was Lord Garmadon, we were lucky it was Lloyd. I think the only person even close to ready was Kim."

"Well duh," said Kim, "it's because I'm awesome." Cole rolled his eyes.

"Ignoring that, we really should be getting back." Jay jumped on Wisp's back.

"It's about time I added a little finesse to my routine." Zane nodded.

"I could use some exercise." Rose grabbed Barb's reigns.

"I suppose I could actually try to see what my Sais can do." Sam scratched the back of her head.

"I guess I've done enough brain training for a while." Cole pulled on Rocky's reigns.

"I've gotta work on some new moves."

"Eh, I suppose I can try and get some training done," said Bree, bringing Gale into the sky, "as long as it's not boring."

"You guys are so gonna get your butts kicked by me," shouted out Kim, who had already taken off after her earlier comment. Cole's eyes widened.

"Kim! Stop being such a show off!" Kai was still on the ground, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Could I be the Green Ninja," he asked himself before flying off.

* * *

Lloyd escaped, going to an icy wasteland, kicking any rocks that crossed his path.

"Stupid ninja! Stupid kunoichi! I'll show them who they're dealing with! I'm sure I'll get to the girl's school soon! Then me and Lin can exact our revenge together!" He looked around and groaned. "WHY DID THAT STUPID BUS DROP ME OFF HERE?! THIS IS NOWHERE NEAR DARKLY'S SCHOOL FOR BAD GIRLS!" He furiously kicked a rock, which made a thud like it hit metal. He had a look of confusion on his face as he started heading towards the source of the sound. "Hey, what is this?" He got down on the ground and started digging through the snow, and soon noticed that the cracks in the ground formed a snake's face. He stood up, wide-eyed as he started backing away. The ground started to split and he fell down the hole, landing on the hard ground and sliding onto ice, only stopping when he had no more momentum. He groaned and stood up, looking around the icy prison.

"You are out of your mind to venture ssso far away from home little one," said a voice behind him. He turned around and saw a tall, cobra like snake person, with a mostly teal scaled body, with black, yellow, and white accent scales. His eyes were completely red and swirled. He held a golden staff with a serpent circling around it, and a large blue orb embedded in it, underneath the serpent's head. He started rattling his tail, opening his eyes wide as Lloyd looked into the large red orbs. Lloyd couldn't pull his eyes away, but started walking backwards, the large Serpentine following him. " Give up your mind. I will control you." Lloyd's eyes started drooping as he fell into the trance, but then he slipped on the icy floor, and the general was forced to look into his own eyes, hypnotizing himself. Lloyd got off the ground and looked at the reflection in the ice, a plan forming in his head as he started laughing before turning to the Serpentine.

"No, I will control _you_ from now on," he said with a smirk on his face. The Serpentine humbly bowed to Lloyd.

"What will you have usss do Massster," he asked, dashing the plans Lloyd had had in his head.

"Us," he asked in a confused tone. Suddenly, Serpentine were swarming out of the shadows, although none of them had tail likes the one with the golden staff did unless they were the size of actual snakes. Lloyd smirked as he looked at all the Serpentine. "My own army of snakes," he exclaimed excitedly as he came up with a new plan. "Mwuahahahahahahahaha!"

* * *

They had all put their dragons in the keep and were heading to the training grounds.

"So then we all agree," started Jay, "The prophecy states that one of us will become the Green Ninja-"

"Or Green Kunoichi," interrupted Sam. Jay sighed.

"Yes, or the Green Kunoichi. Anyway, we all know the issue will not rest until it is decided!" Before they could say anything else, they reached the training course. Tied up in the middle of it was a girl Lloyd's age, but with black hair in pigtails, wearing a black shirt with a green star on it and a purple tutu. She was struggling to get out of it, and with the way that Sensei Wu and Nya were panting, it had taken them a long time to subdue her. Sensei Wu looked back at them.

"Ah, you're back. I'm glad you are. We have an unexpected guest."

"You won't get away with this," cried out the little girl indignantly. "My dad is the Dark Lord and he! Will! Get! His! Revenge!" She laughed evilly. "So hurting me will only cause you more pain!" Sensei Wu sighed.

"I am _not_ going to hurt my own niece, evil or not." Nya rolled her eyes and walked up to them.

"While you guys were out in Jamanikai Village, little Lin Garmadon decided to escape from her boarding school and tried to take us out, the little brat." She glared at Lin and folded her arms over her chest at the last part as Lin stuck her tongue out at Nya. Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, we had to deal with one Garmadon brat, only to deal with another?" Sensei Wu's eyes widened.

"Another? Did you see Lloyd today?" Sam nodded.

"Yeah, but don't worry Sensei, we took care of it." He raised an eyebrow.

"And how exactly did you take care of it?" He looked around in a mocking way. "I do not see him with you. Wouldn't the smartest course of action to be to bring him here so I can deal with him?" Jay rubbed the back of his neck, taking off his zukin.

"We uh, we, we sent him back to his boarding school! Yeah, that's it! He went back to Darkly's!" Sensei Wu narrowed his eyes.

"Hmpf! Well, if he escapes again, you should bring here. I do not think allowing him to follow his father's footsteps is the best way to keep Ninjago safe, now is it?" Kim bowed her head.

"Yes Sensei." He nodded.

"Good. Now, you eight will watch over her while I go and meditate. Your loud video games interrupted my focus earlier." He glared at the boys as he mentioned the video games. "And you will not create too much noise while I focus." With that, he went into his room. Kai groaned.

"Anything else anyone wants to add on?" Nya nodded.

"Yep! Now that I know Jamanikai is safe, I'm gonna head down there to pick up some supplies! We're getting low on food so I'm gonna get some." Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You just did a supply restock last week." Nya laughed nervously.

"Yeah, well, uh, we all know how much Cole eats!"

"Hey, I resent that statement," said Cole, throwing down his zukin. Everyone else laughed at that.

"Well Nya," said Rose, throwing her zukin off, "while you're in town, we'll go ahead and watch the little brat while you get supplies, and whatever else." She leaned in and whispered to her. "Get some cookies and stuff for Lin. We can use that to bribe her into behaving later. If it works for my little brother it'll work for her." Nya nodded.

"I'm on it!" She waved at them. "See you guys when I get back!" Jay smiled and waved at her a small bit.

"Bye Nya…" Once she was gone he sighed, making Kai roll his eyes.

"Great, not only did I have to watch that, but now we've gotta baby sit a demented evil fairy princess in a purple tutu!" Kyria glared at him.

"I am not an evil fairy princess!" She smirked as evilly as she could. "I'm dressed as a dark empress! I will rule over you all! Mwuahahahahahahaha!"

"Says the kid tied up," said Cole. "Can we untie her? Would it be safe? I don't know how I feel about keeping a kid tied up like that, Garmadon's kid or not." Kim's eyes widened.

"Are you crazy?! Of course we should untie her! Look at her, she's just a little kid!" She started to untie Kyria. "If you promise to behave, I'll marathon Princess Amedia Wars with you." Lin's eyes widened.

"Really?! That's my favorite shows!" Her eyes widened as she realized what she said. "I mean, ew, that goody goody show?! No way, I'm an evil empress! I do not watch show about pretty purple princesses!" She looked up at Kim shyly. "But, uh, if you insist." Kim smiled and untied her. "So what am I gonna do now?"

"You're just gonna sit there," said Kai, "while we test out our Golden Weapons!" Cole nodded.

"Kim, you sit this out, it's not fair to the rest of us." She was about to protest, but Cole held up a hand. "We're gonna test out our Golden Weapons. We were all talking about it, but then you raced off just so you could beat us to the monastery! Plus you know how to work your Golden Weapon and we don't. So you can watch Kyria and make sure she doesn't get into trouble while we train. As the leader what I say goes and it's not my fault that you didn't stop and wait for the rest of us. Next time, don't be such a show off." Kim grumbled and rolled her eyes, but sat next to Lin.

"I'm excited to learn what our Weapons can do," said Rose excitedly, holding her Sais and spinning them in her hands.

"Yeah, well, lets do a tournament," said Jay excitedly, "like we planned before!"

"Oh come on," said Kim indignantly. "How can you do a tournament without me in it?!" Sam shrugged.

"One of us sits out with you?" Zane shook his head.

"That would be illogical. Tournaments are best done in multiples of 2, such as 4 to 8 to 16 and so on. That way at the end there are only two people to ace off in the end. Otherwise we will have a three way battle. We don't have any other course of action here." Cole tapped his chin.

"Okay I guess we have to do it. Kim, you're in." He walked over to the nearby closet as Kim cheered and happily stood next to the other girls. Cole threw out a kendo helmet and it made a sound as it hit Jay in the head. With a smirk, he turned around and held up a helmet and set of padded armor. "Alright, two matches each side, ninja versus ninja, kunoichi versus kunoichi. Hen the last remaining ninja and the last remaining kunoichi face off for the title. Armor and helmets are for our own protection. It's time to see what these babies can do!" He held up his Scythe.

* * *

Jay and Kai were standing across from each other, Cole next to them as everyone else was sitting down, Lin intensely watching while eating a bag of candy, stolen candy no doubt.

"Alright, first match is Kai versus Jay," proclaimed Cole letting the two bow to each other before pulling out their weapons. "NINJA-GO!" The two jumped at each other, making Cole spin before falling over. Rose pulled him over to safety and sat him up next to her. Jay started spinning his Nunchaks, but accidentally hit himself in the head and electrocuted himself. Kai stopped for a moment as everyone laughed, but then jumped over Jay's head and tried to strike him in the chest with his Sword. Every parry and thrust was met by Jay, until Jay started to move onto the offensive. Kai use his momentum to run across the wall on Jay's right before landing in front of him. He went to strike but then Jay jumped back, only for the Sword of Fire to shoot a fireball at him and render him temporarily incapacitated. Kai looked at his Sword in surprise before smirking at his victory.

* * *

Jay sat down, disappointed at his loss. Cole was standing in front of Kim and Rose, while Lin suddenly had a bag of popcorn, also most likely stolen.

"Now it's time for Kim versus Rose! KUNOICHI-GO!" Cole jumped back from the dueling women before he could get hurt again. Kim smirked and held up her Chigiriki.

"This is gonna be easy!" She started swinging the weight, gathering metal around the weight. Rose held up her Sais.

"I don't think so!" Jay leaned over to Zane.

"Is it just me, or do the girls talk during their fights more than we do?" Zane shrugged.

"Perhaps it is just you imagination." Rose crisscrossed her Sais in front of her as Kim whipped the chain. The metal hit Rose in the face, but the chain of the Chigiriki was caught in Rose's Sais. Rose smirked and pulled them forward, but Kim wouldn't budge from where she stood. Rose pulled her hardest, and soon, green vines sprouted up from the ground near her and shot out at Kim, wrapping her up. They both looked at the plants in shock, but Kim simply slammed on bottom of the Chigiriki on to ground, making metal come up and cut the vines. Before Rose could recover from the shock, Kim swung the Chigiriki's weight and bashed Rose in the head with it, making her fall over.

* * *

Jay and Rose were sitting next to each other sadly. Lin now had a bag of chocolate. Kai stood in front of Cole and Zane, who were ready to face off.

"Next up, it's Cole versus Zane!" The two of them bowed to each other. "NINJA-GO!" He quickly jumped away as the two held up their weapons.

Cole ran at Zane, trying to swing his Scythe at Zane, but he dodge by jumping upward and in instead, the Scythe cut straight through a cylindrical, solid wood piece of training equipment. Zane landed safely behind Cole, unscathed. Cole turned around quickly and started swinging, but Zane was able to dodge each blow with his Shurikens. Then, Zane jumped up and landed behind Cole. He held his Shurikens together like he was praying before throwing one at Cole's feet. Cole panicked and lifted his foot up, letting it land on the Shuriken with a smirk. He held up his Scythe and was about to attack as Zane pulled out his other Shuriken, but then he looked down and saw that he was frozen to the ground. Zane threw the other Shuriken, but Cole quickly blocked it as Zane jumped up and then pushed himself off of a support beam, landing behind Cole. He kept throwing his Shurikens at Cole, but Cole kept blocking until he managed to hook his Scythe behind Zane and make him fall over, holding the Scythe up to his neck in victory.

* * *

Zane, Jay, and Rose were all sitting in the sad losers corner as Lin now munched on a bag of licorice. Cole stood in front of Bree and Sam.

"For the end of the kunoichi first round, it's Sam versus Bree! KUNOICHI-GO!" He jumped back as the girls started fighting. Bree held out her Fans as Sam held her Tonfas against her arms, the handles snuggly in her hands. Sam ran at Bree, ready to hit her with the Tonfas, but Bree jumped over her head and kicked Sam in the back of the head before landing.

"There's no way you can beat me Sam," cried out Bree triumphantly. Sam stumbled and lost her hold on the Tonfas, making one of them spin out, pointing at Bree as it shot out sand. Sam looked at it in surprise before smirking, holding both of the Tonfas the same way, blasting sand at Bree.

"You think so?! Well Eat sand!" Bree held up her Fans to keep the sand from getting in her face, trying to bring up the other one, but instead when she moved it, creating a breeze. She smirked as an idea formed in her head.

"Why don't you eat your own sand," she asked in a triumphant voice as she started beating her Fans. The wind started pushing the sand and the wind at Sam, stopping in the middle of the two of them. Sam smirked.

"All I have to do is keep holding out my Tonfas! You have to keep beating your Fans! Clearly, I'm gonna win!" Bree looked determined and kept beating her fans, but soon, her arms tired out, and she was thrown back towards the wall with a blast of sand. Sam stood there smirking. "Told ya."

* * *

Bree joined the losers corner as Lin munched on a bag of what appeared to be taffy. Kim stood in front of Kai and Cole as they got ready to battle.

"Alrighty then boys and girls! Time so see who the best ninja is, so we can find out who the best kunoichi is, and then finish off with a battle between me and the winner!"

"Hey," called out Sam, "I could still beat you!" Kim laughed.

"Whatever! NINJA-GO!" She jumped back as Kai and Cole immediately started trying to slice each other up. Kai started pushing Cole back, but then Cole jumped backwards and landed perfectly, throwing the tip of the blade of his Scythe into the ground, causing a shockwave that sent Kyria's taffy flying and everyone else grabbed onto what they could to stay stable as Kyria cried out for her fallen sweets. Kai was flat on the ground as Cole made a premature cry of victory, but then Kai made a noise of frustration, his eyes filled with anger as he jumped up. Kai's Sword started glowing brightly and made him spin into Spinjitsu before stopping. He looked at his Sword as if it were working on its own.

"It's too hot! I-I can't let go!" The Sword lit itself on fire as they all looked on in shock.

"It's burning," said Zane, too shocked to say anything else.

"Fire," cried out Jay in concern.

"Yeah, but how do we stop it," cried out Kim. Sam stood up and held out her Tonfas, ready to intervene. Lin curled up in a ball, terrified.

"I-I'm scared! I don't wanna die!" Rose gently pet her hair, trying to calm her.

"We won't die Lin, I promise!"

"It's going to burn down the monastery if we don't do something," cried out Bree as she held up her Fans. Zane put his hands over hers.

"No Bree, if you do that you could make the flames worse!" Finally, Kai was able to let go of the Sword, but it was still ablaze as it started to burn down the monastery, lighting a line of fire from it, creating a circle of fire around Kai once it got close to him. Sam held out her Tonfas and tried to spew out sand, but it wasn't working. Cole tried to use the blade of his Scythe to try and smother it. Kyria screamed loudly, and Sensei Wu came out, looking at the scene in horror, then in anger. He walked right through the flames before taking the Shurikens of Ice from Zane, closing his eyes as he threw them up in the air. He put his hands together as if he were praying, and they lined up with each other, going over the fire and putting it out, including Jay's butt, which had managed to also catch fire. Once it was fully out, Lin ran over to the most familiar person to her and cried.

"I thought we were gonna die Uncle!" He glared at all of them, holding her as he dropped the Shurikens.

"What were you THINKING?! You could've burned down the monastery and hurt yourselves, or worse, hurt an innocent bystander! I told you to watch my niece, not barbeque her!" They all cringed at how angry Sensei Wu was.

"Uh, we were trying to figure out who was the Green Ninja of Kunoichi," said Jay, promptly getting whacked in the back of the head by Zane. "Ow! Uh, heh, did, did I say green? No no, I uh sorry, uh hem, what I- what I said was … lean…?" Sensei Wu only looked even angrier.

"How do you know the prophecy of the Green Warrior?" Jay sighed.

"Kai accidentally grabbed your bag and we found the scroll. Kai?" Kai looked guilty as he pulled it out. Sensei Wu snatched it from him.

"You were not supposed to see this!" He tucked it away in his pocket.

"But Sensei," said Kim, "we want to know. Which one of us is it supposed to be?" He only glared once more.

"None of you are worthy of the Green Gi. You all take to childish tournaments to push each other down. I heard you fighting, but I thought you would be smarter about it. I didn't think you were doing this to learn who was the Chosen One. You need to unlock the full potential of your Golden Weapons first, in a safer manner. Only then can you unlock your full potential of yourself."

"But my Sword," said Kai, "it was so bright! Is that what you mean by unlocking our Golden Weapons?"

"You are only the beginning," he said as he started to walk away, " maybe at different starting points for each of you, but not far enough to be anywhere but, and the road is long and winding, but yes, this is what I meant. If this is what it must take for you to train, then so be it, but just know that none of you, not even you Kim, are anywhere near the level it takes to be the Green Warrior. Just make sure to practice safely. Ease into it." He looked at his niece. "Lin, you stay with Nya so that I know you are safe." He looked around. "Where is Nya?"

"In Jamanikai Village," said Sam. "She said she went to go get supplies." He sighed.

"Alright, Lin, stay here, but stay far away from Kai. His Weapon is the most volatile and dangerous." Lin nodded.

"Okay Uncle!" He went back inside. Bree sighed.

"I feel bad. We almost burned down his home." Rose nodded.

"And hurt his niece." Cole nodded at that.

"No more tournaments. We're going to train safely, ease our way in like Sensei said." He looked over at Kai, who was too close to Lin for his comfort. "Kai, get away from Lin. We don't want a barbequed dark princess on our hands."

"Empress! I'm an empress!" Kai grumbled and stepped away from her.

* * *

Down in Jamanikai Village, Nya was holding a suspiciously jagged bag, as if it were filled with sharp implements.

"Hm, better buy some actual food so they don't get suspicious." She went over to a vender who had plenty of fresh fruits, but then she heard a bunch of screaming and looked up. "What now?" She saw Lloyd come out of a candy store with a wheelbarrow full of candy.

"Take the candy! Take it ALL!" He brandished his hand on the last word before sticking his hands up in the air, laughing evilly. Nya rolled her eyes at first, but then saw the Serpentine come up behind him and her eyes widened. She jumped behind a cart barrel, dropping her bag in the process. The Serpentine went up to the terrified fruit vendor. The one with the staff started rattling his tail and Nya looked at him, although his eyes were partially hidden from view.

"Look into my eyesss," he said to the fruit vendor as his eyes became swirled. "I control you now." He fruit vendor nodded blankly.

"You control me now…" Nya's eyes widened.

"Their eyes… if you look into their eyes, they can control you!" One of the mind slaves walked too close to the staff, and the general pulled it away quickly, a small bit of fear in his eyes.

"None of you are allowed to touch my ssstaff, do you hear?!" She narrowed her eyes at the staff.

"What's so important about the staff? He looked afraid of them touching it. Maybe…" her eyes lit up with realization, "maybe there's something in the staff that breaks them out of his control!" She smiled, but then frowned, "but I dropped my weapons out in the open! There's no way I can get to them now!" She saw that the general was coming, along with another, and shrunk behind the crate even more so they wouldn't see her.

"Thisss makesss sssenssse General Ssslithraa," said the other one. "Raiding an entire town, for sssweets?" Slithraa turned at him and glared, pointing at him so hard that the other Serpentine had to back up a bit.

"You will do asss I sssay Ssskalesss, becaussse I hold the ssstaff," he said angrily, brandishing the staff in the air. Nya looked up at the monastery.

"Oh, I hope the ninja and kunoichi know that something's wrong down here!"

* * *

The ninja and the kunoichi were practicing outside, with Kyria staying far away from Kai. Inside the monastery, Sensei Wu was focusing. Inside the Spirit Smoke, he was a vision of Lloyd with the Serpentine, raiding the village and hypnotizing anyone in his way. Sensei Wu's eyes were widened with fear as he ran outside.

"The Serpentine are back," he exclaimed as he threw open the doors. "Everyone in Jamanikai Village is in danger!" They all looked towards him.

"Whoa," said Cole, "calm down Sensei. We were just there. It was just Lloyd, and he just-"

"The Spirit Smoke does not lie," he said urgently. "An ancient evil has been released by Lloyd!" Kai had a panicked look on his face.

"Nya's there right now!" Jay looked back at Kai.

"Nya?!" Kim nodded.

"We have to go down to Jamanikai village and save Nya, and the villagers!" Lin smirked and tried to sneak away.

"An ancient evil? Lloyd? Sounds like the perfect evil plan!" Sensei Wu saw her and grabbed her by the back of the shirt.

"This isn't a game Kyria! People could be really hurt by what your brother has done!" She stuck her tongue out at him.

"We're evil, what do you expect?" He sighed.

"I guess I have no choice Lin, come with me. You are grounded and not allowed to leave the monastery without supervision." She whined as the ninja and kunoichi ran to the dragon's keep and mounted their dragons, flying off.

"Stay close," said Kai, "stay together."

"Would we do it any other way," replied Cole.

"Kim might," said Rose. Kim glared back.

"Hey, that was to show you guys you needed to train! And against one person!" She looked at Jamanikai Village. "I doubt it's actually Serpentine that Lloyd has, but if he does have an army of some sort, then we've gotta stick together."

* * *

People were running and screaming as Lloyd went through town with his wheelbarrow. He threw his arms up in the air.

"I'm never coming down from this sugar high! WOOOO HOOOOO!" Suddenly, the ninja and the kunoichi surrounded him.

"Sorry to bust your buzz little Garmadon," said Cole as he got closer.

"But it's already past your bedtime," said Jay. Rose held up her Sais.

"Wanna hear a bedtime story? It's called Spinjitsu Masters Make Lloyd Go Night Night!" Cole sighed.

"Really Rose? Couldn't come up with anything better?" She shrugged.

"I thought it was good." Bree nodded.

"Yeah, so did I." Lloyd turned around.

"Get them," he called out. General Slithraa and Skales stood behind him, and General Slithraa started rattling his tail, looking at the ninja and the kunoichi.

"Get them!" They all looked at them in surprise.

"The Serpentine," said kai incredulously, "they're real?!" Kim backed up a bit, pulling out her Chigiriki.

"The one time Kai and I agree on something and we're both wrong!" They moved into a circle, their backs to each other as they noticed the hypnotized villagers coming towards them.

"It's not just them we have to worry about!" He looked back at his team. "The whole village is under their control somehow!" Rose narrowed her eyes, holding her Sais.

"Their eyes are swirled like those Serpentine's, all red and stuff. Is it hypnosis?" Jay pulled out his Nunchaks and started spinning them before Zane ran over and grabbed his arm.

"No! Our Weapons are too unstable! We could do more harm than good! We do not even know how to use them!"

"Speak for yourselves," cried out Kim indignantly, "I know how to use mine just fine thank you!" Zane glared at her.

"The point is, it could end up like at the monastery. We almost hurt Lin. We could hurt these innocent villagers too!"

"Kai almost hurt Lin," said Bree as Kai crossed his arms and glared, "but you make a fair point."

"They don't seem so innocent to me," said Sam as she backed up, Tonfas in hand, but in the normal way.

"Zane's right," said Cole, "we can't risk hurting them, they're not themselves!"

"I guess that just leaves up with RUUUUUN," cried out Jay as all of them jumped away. Kai literally had to pulled Kim away.

"Hey," she said, glaring at him and whacking his hand away, "I can handle myself! Unlike you chuckleheads I actually know how to use my Weapon!" He glared right back at her.

"We have to stay together! We can't just go one fighting an army of snakes on our own, especially not if they're hypnotizing people! We can't afford to be fighting you!" Cole nodded.

"Kai's right, we stick together. That way there's less of a chance of them turning one of us. Now let's go!" They started jumping over roof after roof until they found a couple of overturned carts pushed together where they could hide behind. After taking a second to catch their breath, Nya jumped behind the carts with them.

"Nya," said Jay in a questioning voice. Then, he smiled with relief. "You're okay!" She nodded, a worried look on her face.

"Barely! They've hypnotized everyone in town!" Rose nodded.

"Mind control! Just like I thought! You read about this kind of stuff all the time in books!" Sam nodded.

"But how's it possible? Hypnosis requires a focus point. I don't see anything like that on them, unless it's…" her eyes widened as Nya started to explain.

"When you hear them rattle their tails, don't look them in the eyes! That's how they get you!" Bree groaned.

"I don't think any of us can fight blind!" Kim sighed.

"Okay, yeah… that's one thing I can't do…"

"The snake with the staff is the general," said Nya. "He's the one in charge. He got really worried when one of the hypnotized villagers got to close to it and then ordered them all to stay away from it. I'm not sure, but I think there might be an anti-venom of some sort in it. If we get that, I think we can save everyone!" Kai looked at his teammates.

"Look guys, forget about the whole Green Ninja/Kunoichi thing. Let's make Sensei proud, and show Lin that good always wins, by taking down Lloyd! We can do it, the eight of us, cause we're a team!" Rose nodded.

"Sounds like a plan Kai!" Jay turned to Nya.

"Oh, an Nya, you can be our honorary kunoichi!" She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest as she turned away.

"Gee, thanks," she said sarcastically. Soon, they were running back into the action. Kai landed in the middle of a group of snakes. He turned towards where the most of them were.

"You wanna play," he asked. "How 'bout a little Spinjitsu?! NINJA-GO!" He tried starting, but then kept flashing in and out of his Spinjitsu, making noises of distress as he lost control of himself and then hit a wall. Bree sighed as she looked on.

"Wow, we are so out of shape it's not even funny." Rose shrugged.

"I don't know, seeing Kai hit a wall is pretty funny."

The Serpentine started surrounding Kai, but he jumped up and threw his fists up and behind him, effectively knocking out a couple of Serpentine trying to sneak up on him. Lloyd was running away with his wheelbarrow.

"Consider this a warning ninja!" He started laughing as the girls glared.

"WE'RE KUNOICHI!" Zane threw his Shurikens on the ground in front of Lloyd, creating a couple of frozen spots that directly got in the way of the wheels of the wheelbarrow, making it fall over and all the candy spill out, with Lloyd landing on top of it.

"NINJA-GO!" Zane used Spinjitsu to get over to Lloyd.

"AH! My candy!" Zane looked down at the little kid, who was wriggling in frustration.

"Sensei was right. Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. We should've dealt with you properly the first time around." Lloyd was able to fully lift himself up.

"RETREAT!" General Slithraa looked around at his army.

"RETREAT!" The Serpentine, short of Skales and Slithraa, started running off. Cole jumped out at Slithraa before he could run off and kicked the staff out of his hands. He jumped back and glared at the general.

"Go ahead! Give me a reason!" The general quickly fled. Cole smirked and went to pick up the staff, but when he straightened out, he was looking directly into the eyes of Skales.

"Look into my eyesss. I control you…" Cole tried to look away, but couldn't as his eyes turned red and swirled.

"You… control…" Rose saw what was going on and her eyes widened in shock.

"Cole!" He looked at her once his name was called out as Skales tried to grab the staff from him. The rest of the Serpentine kept running past her, making it impossible for her to get to him, but Nya saw what was going on and kicked Skales in the face. Cole was still in a bit of a trance, and started to follow Skales as he ran off.

"Cole, you have the anti-venom," cried out Nya. "He shook his head and looked down at the staff.

"By golly you're right!" He said.

"Quick," she said pointing, "the fountain!"

"Good idea!" He ran over to it and firmly place the staff into the fountain, unsure of it would work. Bree jumped on top of the fountain.

"Let's see if I can get these Fans under control!" She started beating them gently, creating a gentle breeze that turned the anti-venom filled water into a gentle mist, flowing over the town and releasing the villagers from their mental captivity. Sam looked around.

"Where's Lloyd?" Zane sighed.

"I lost sight of him when the Serpentine ran off. I blame myself for not capturing him." Jay pat him on the back.

"It's okay buddy, we all make mistakes." Cole nodded.

"Yeah, but now we've gotta go back to the monastery and tell Sensei Wu what happened."

* * *

They were all sitting in front of Sensei Wu in the training grounds, with an unhappy Kyria sitting next to him. Cole handed Sensei Wu the staff once he was done telling him what happened.

"I see. So you did not manage to get him?" They all shook their heads as Kai sighed.

"We're sorry Sensei. If we had dealt with Lloyd before he became a problem, none of this would've been necessary." He stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"Even lessons learned the hard way are lessons learned. Hm." He looked past his students, towards to open sky. "A great evil has been unleashed. I fear troubling times will come." He looked back down at his students. "This is only the beginning."

"Then we will train, and be ready for the Serpentine," replied Zane with a determined smile on his face.

"And we won't stop until the Serpentine are defeat and Ninjago is safe again," said Rose, her look mirroring Zane's.

"It may not be Lord Garmadon," said Cole, "but that doesn't mean we won't bring our A game!"

"Help us train Sensei," said Bree, "help us realize our potential."

"Both of ourselves and of our Weapons," clarified Sam.

"Yeah, teach us the secrets behind the Weapons of Spinjitsu," said Jay.

"There is much to teach, and such little time to do it, but I will do my best." He smiled at his students. "And I will do it most earnestly, as I hope you will take my knowledge with the same energy. Perhaps we should start training with the dragons first." They all nodded and started going down to the dragon keep. Nya sighed.

"When am I gonna get my own dragon?" Sensei Wu smiled all too knowingly.

"Patience Nya. Your time will come."

* * *

The Serpentine and Lloyd were back at the Serpentine tomb, where Lloyd looked about ready to freeze.

"Candy! I need… candy!" He curled in on himself. The general and Skales were fighting with each other.

"We cannot allowed him to lead usss," argued Skales. "He sssent usss fleeing from the battle! Hypnobrai do not run! We ssstand our ground!"

"The boy ssset us free. He may be sssmarter than he looksss." Skales put a hand on the general's shoulder, trying to gt him to see reason.

"He isss a child! He isss not one of usss!" Slithraa threw Skales's hand off.

"I may not have the ssstaff, but I am ssstill your general! Ssstand down!" Skales angrily, and slowly, started walking away.

"You coward," said one of the Serpentine warriors. "We all know he isss under Lloyd'sss ssspell! You are sssecond in command, and ssstill you do nothing?!" Skales smirked knowingly.

"Now isss not the time Mezmo. I ssstill hold the key to dessstroy the ninja, and when I do that, everyone will sssee it isss I who should be in control." Through his hypnosis, he could see through Cole's eyes, everything, including the fact that Kyria was with them. He laughed evilly, choosing to withhold the information from Lloyd.

 **Song Of Hope: Finally done! Sometimes, I just loose my drive to do things, but I got my drive to do this story back!**


	4. Episode 4 Home

**Song Of Hope: I just plowed through this chapter since I was excited to do the chapter after this one. R &R**

Sensei Wu was, once again, meditating with the Spirit Smoke.

"My turn," cried out Kai.

"Uh, no, it's my turn," whined Jay.

"Oh you want a little more," said Cole, "take this!" Sensei Wu opened his eyes, quietly walking over to what looked like a strange looking flute, before putting it in a more secure cabinet with bars, locking it. He then headed towards the gaming room, but was surprised to not find the ninja there. He went to Rose's room as was surprised to find none of the kunoichi there either. Then, with pride in his eyes, he headed towards where he had first wanted to go, the training grounds. All of the ninja and kunoichi, short of Kim, were training. Kim was sitting nearby, with Lin next to her as they watched Princess Amedia Wars. Jay was swinging his Nunchaks to block incoming, deadly arrows. Rose was using a sparring bot that Jay and Nya had made to train with her Sais, repeatedly crossing them to block incoming swings. Cole was running around on one of the cylinders. Bree was aiming her fans downwards, using them to lift herself into the air. Kai was practicing with his Spinjitsu, shooting out fireballs upwards into the sky from his Sword. Sam stood nearby and smirked. She aimed her Tonfas at the fireballs, shooting controlled bursts of Sand up at the fireballs, turning them into perfect glass orbs that were red-hot.

Zane was meditating, but soon jumped in front of Jay, hitting the arrows away with one hand. He then jumped over to where Rose was and kicked the sparring bot over with great force, jarring something side to make it glitch and stop working. He then went over to Cole's training cylinder and stole the Scythe of Quakes from Cole, slashing one of the training dummies on the cylinder before throwing the Scythe away carelessly. Cole just barely managed to catch it before it would've caused a quake on the monastery.

"NINJA-GO!" He then started using Spinjitsu, going through the whole training course and freezing it over, making Sam's feet get stuck in ice and Kai to loose his footing with his Spinjitsu and fall on his butt. Kim and Lin looked up and Kim started laughing.

"Ha! This is what you get for sticking me with baby-sitting!" Lin glared.

"Hey! I'm a delight to be around! And you should be honored that your future dark empress is watching this with you!" Kim rolled her eyes and stood up, joining the others as they looked over at Zane.

"This roof isn't big enough for the eight of us," said Kai.

"Correction," said Cole, "this roof isn't big enough for him." Bree shrugged.

"I mean, he's trying at least." Kim rolled her eyes.

"This goes beyond trying, he's being a showoff." Kai glared.

"Do you not remember yourself when Lloyd showed up?" She glared right back.

"Hey, I wasn't this bad!" Sam shook her head.

"No, you were worse." Rose rolled her eyes.

"We're talking about Zane now, not Kim." Jay nodded.

"Yeah, at least Kim's not off in her own little world." He turned towards him a bit. "I bet he can't even hear us," he shouted out, which Zane did not hear at all. He just threw his Shuriken and then kicked it away when it returned. Sensei Wu walked over to then group.

"Sensei," said Kai, "Zane's… weird."

"What is weird," he questioned, "someone who is different, or someone who is different than you?" Lin giggled, still over at the laptop.

"Nope, he's a Weirdo McWeirdson!" Sam nodded.

"I'd have to agree. I've… never met someone so weird."

* * *

Sam was doing a jigsaw puzzle, when Zane came in, and in a blur, the whole puzzle was done.

"Wha- why? Why Zane? That was my puzzle!" He shrugged and walked away.

* * *

Cole was reading a newspaper as he did his business, when Zane came in and started combing his hair.

"Do you mind," asked Cole angrily.

* * *

Bree was outside on the roof at night, when Zane just came up and started staring at the moon. She looked over at him questioningly, but said nothing as he continued to just… stare.

* * *

"Goodbye my darling," said the TV as Nya and Jay watched a sad romantic film together. They were both in tears over what was happening, but Zane started laughing.

* * *

Kim had just gotten out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around her and her hair. She was about to take it off just she heard something outside. She looked out her window and saw Zane.

"ZANE?! What are you doing here?!" He smiled and held up an herb.

"Look Kim! Basil and rosemary! There is a lot of it outside your room! I decided to gather it for the next time it is my turn to cook!"

"GO AWAY!" She shut the blinds angrily, leaving Zane confused.

* * *

Kai was up late at night, getting a snack. He went to look in the fridge to see if there was anything he wanted to eat, only to scream at the sight of what was inside. Inside the fridge was Zane, eating a sandwich.

"I'm sorry, I consumed the last of the deli meat." He held out a wedge of something. "Cheese?"

* * *

Rose was reading a book in the monastery library when Zane came in. He started looking through the shelves and was throwing books off if they didn't match what he was looking for. Rose's eye started twitching.

* * *

"I had to explain to him how a library works! Apparently, he's never even heard of one in his entire life! Those books are ancient! He could've ruined some great history!"

"We like the guy," said Kai. "He's really smart and a great fighter. He's just… he's a little off sometimes." Zane bowed to a dummy, which then hit him in the back of the head.

"Zane is a brother," said Sensei Wu, "and brothers are often different. I should know."

Huffing and puffing was the Ninjago mailman, climbing up the steps of the monastery to deliver the mail in his large wooden backpack. Once he finally reached the top, he hit the gong, which let the people inside know that there was mail. They all ran to the door and opened it. The mailman took off the pack and dug into it, sighing.

"Let's see. A letter from Jay's parents," he started handing them to their respective owners, "two for Kim, one is a package from her brother, one from her parents and sister, a letter from Rose's brother, Kai has a fan letter, Bree, looks like your grandmother sent you another care package, oh, something from Cole's father, and Sam… you got another sand filled shell necklace from your father." Sam groaned as she grabbed the necklace.

"Another one?" Cole looked at the mailman.

"What, no package? I'm expecting something from Creatures, Beasts and Beyond!" The mailman shook his head, but looked again to satisfy Cole.

"No, nothing from uh, ah ha!" He smiled triumphantly as he pulled out the package. "Here it is!" Cole smiled brightly as he grabbed it.

"Rocky's gonna love this!" Bree looked at him.

"Hold on, I've got something you can send back to Belle and Nana!" She ran to her room and came back out with a letter and a package, along with a tip. "Thanks so much!" He smiled as the door was slammed in his face.

"It's nice to be appreciated." Those who had letters looked at them fondly. Lin sighed.

"I wish Dad would send me something every now and then." Sensei Wu pat the top of her head.

"Patience Lin. Your father loves you." Kai looked up and saw how sad Zane looked. Jay finished reading his letter and looked up at him.

"Hey Zane, how come you hear get anything from your parents?"

"I… don't remember my parents. I've been an orphan all of my life…" Bree looked over sadly.

"Not even a nana or a younger sibling to help you…?" He shook his head. Rose looked at him sadly.

"Not even a home?" He shook his head again.

"Never." Lin looked down, remembering how she never remembered her mother.

"I get that," she said with a sigh. "I never even met my mom, and I only know about my dad because he always had Kruncha and Nuckal send me things."

"The monastery is your home now," said Sensei Wu, putting a hand on Lin's shoulder. "It can be all of ours, even those of us who have homes to return to." Zane just walked away sadly, going to his room.

"That could explain some of his weird behavior," said Sam. "He never had anyone growing up to tell him not to do that stuff."

* * *

Cole was opening up the package in the dragon's keep, where the other dragon were trying to get out of their stalls at the smell.

"Liver and toads Rocky, your favorite!" Rocky was panting like a dog in excitement. Cole happily threw him the treat as he ate it. "Mmm mmm!" Unknown to Cole, Skales was looking on through his eyes, standing inside of a treehouse in the middle of the woods, next to another Serpentine.

"I can't believe you hypnotized one of the ninja," said a Serpentine warrior with a much more humanlike appearance. "Does General Ssslithraa know?"

"Of courssse not Rattla!" he said, slightly angry. "He'sss been put under the control of Lloyd, and I plan to ussse it for my bessst interessst," Rattla saw Slithraa coming and walked away.

"Everyone worksss while you two ssslack," he said accusingly. "Asss my sssecond in command, I expect more from you Ssskalesss!" Skales nodded and bowed.

"Yesss general!" Slithraa started slithering off, but Skales walked after him a bit. "You know I am mossst loyal to you, but I mussst quessstion thisss childish agenda. The ninja have ssstolen our ssstaff, yet you inssstruct your army to make thisss playhoussse for Lloyd." The general was getting visibly angry, and Skales knew this, but he continued to press. "Sssnakesss don't belong treesss. There sin't a single breed of our lessser cousssinsss that doesss!"

"You know better than to quessstion my judgment Ssskalesss," he said, moving forward so he could back Skales backup. "I'll pretend you didn't asssk!"

"Hey," called out Lloyd, "if we plan to rule Ninjago from here, this elevator needs to have a trap door! I want more booby traps," he said in a whiny and demanding tone.

"Asss you wish, young Garmadon." He waved away Skales, who glared.

"Asss you wish, general." He bowed to the general slightly as he walked away from him.

* * *

Everyone short of Zane sat around the table, chattering excitedly.

"Mm, I love it when it's Zane's night to cook," said Jay, tasting some of the appetizer Zane had put out.

"Hey, I didn't hear any complaints about my duck chowder last night," said Cole.

"Yeah, that's because it glued our mouths shut," said Kai. "You really think that Jay was speechless all through out dinner? Or that Lin wasn't gonna complain about all the veggies in it?" Jay nodded.

"Yeah, please don't make that again." Sam nodded.

"I think we should just take Cole off the roster." Rose nodded.

"I second that."

"Hey!" Zane came out with a large, oven-roasted chicken.

"Dinner is served." When he put down the chicken, everyone could see his pink apron. Bree's eyes widened at the sight of him in her apron that her grandma had given her, but everyone started laughing. Zane looked at them in confusion. "What's so funny?"

"Zane, you're wearing a," started Nya, but she kept laughing, "Even I wouldn't wear that!" He walked over to the head of the table, confused.

"You laugh because I take steps to ensure I am clean after cooking," he asked.

"No," said Rose, "we laughed because you came out in that ridiculous outfit! I mean, come on! A boy in pink?"

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't tease him about his outfit," said Bree, putting an emphasis on the word indicating that it belonged to Zane. "Besides, aren't we stereotyping and enforcing gender roles by saying boys can't wear pink?"

"But Bree," started Zane, "this is-"

"Totally not the time to start up on gender issues, I get that, but, ha ha, come on, isn't it rude to enforce our ideas of masculinity on a guy who grew up without parents?" That made everyone feel bad and look down, and Bree instantly regretted it. "I mean, um… uh…"

"Is this a joke," asked Zane. "I suppose our senses of humor are not quite compatible." Cole looked around to find something to lighten the mood.

"Well, how 'bout this?" He threw a plate of shrimp in Kai's face. Everyone else short of Kai and Zane laughed, while Kai just glared, but soon even he laughed as Sensei Wu snuck off. "How could you not find that funny- WHA!" Suddenly, Sensei Wu dumped some of the leftover duck chowder on Cole's head. The stuff wasn't even white. Everyone who was laughing laughed even harder. Sensei Wu put his hands on Cole and Zane's shoulders.

"Now you are brothers." He went to go sit down in his spot, but then everyone started throwing food. Lin screeched and got under the table.

"VENGANCE UPON ALL OF YOU IF YOU RUIN MY DRESS!" Zane kept getting hit, but looked on sadly as his meal that he had worked so hard on was wasted on childish antics.

* * *

Zane was taking out the trash after dinner, soon taking off the soiled apron.

"I should wash this and return it to Bree. I wonder why she did not wish for anyone to know it was hers." He looked up at the moon, when suddenly he heard a bird's call. He turned and saw a falcon, perched on a nearby branch. He tilted his head in curiosity, and the falcon mimicked the movement. His eyes widened and he shook his head to make sure he was seeing correctly, and the bird also shook its head. His mouth opened with surprise, but he smiled and started dancing, and the bird matched his moves. The bird looked around, and then hopped towards the end of the branch before flying off. Zane looked back into the monastery, where he could hear the others talking joyfully. He turned back towards the bird and made his decision, following it down the mountain steps.

Soon, he was running through the forests with the bird, going wherever the bird lead him. He came over the crest of a hill in the woods to see a tree house being built, brightly lit up with red lights. He could see the Serpentine working inside of the building, constructing it. Several Serpentine warriors were toting Lloyd around on a wooden plank.

"If I see one girl in here that isn't Lin, I'm gonna go ballistic! She doesn't count cause she's my twin, but all other girls are banned, especially the girl ninjas! We still gotta go to Darkly's and pick Lin up though." Zane looked on with concern, but then heard the bird's call again.

"Thank you, my mysterious friend."

* * *

The next morning, as soon as he returned to the monastery and alerted them, the ninja and the kunoichi ran off, going through the forest, trying to get to Lloyd's hideout as they all followed Zane.

"Does Zane even know where he's going," asked Rose.

"I have no idea," answered Kai, "but I don't think so!" They finally came to a stop. "Tell us again how you stumbled upon Lloyd's secret headquarters."

"I followed a bird," he answered rather plainly.

"Okay," said Sam, "why did you think it was a good idea to follow a bird? One that could've possibly been going towards a cliff?"

"Because it danced."

"Oh, okay," said Jay, "was it a cuckoo bird?" They all laughed while Zane just looked confused.

"Of course not. Everyone knows that cuckoo birds are not indigenous to these forests." He started running again while everyone paused to shrug before starting up again.

Once they reached the crest of the hill, they could look on and see the tree house Lloyd was building.

"Watch it," cried out Lloyd. "No bigger! Come on, we don't have all day! It's not time for a lunch break!"

"Holy cannoli, Frosty was right," said Cole as he pointed gestured at the tree house with both hands.

"We can't let that brat and those snakes get a foothold in Ninjago," said Kai, looking at the tree house. "We gotta destroy that thing before it becomes operational." Kim smirked, holding out her Chigiriki.

"Demolition, my favorite past time!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Jay. "Are you sure? It looks like a pretty cool tree house! There's a ropes course, ooo, a tree swing-" Rose whacked him in the back of the head before he could continue. "Ow!"

"Yes we've gotta destroy it!" She looked up at it, "The question is how?" Sam observed it carefully.

"It's supported by three ropes, with a lower support of the actual tree. If we severe the ropes, it should fall like a house of cards."

"But why would one make a house out of cards," asked Zane. "Such construction would be careless." Kim face palmed.

"Oh brother. Zane, no one actually lives in them. It's just a-"

"Don't," said Kai, "don't bother trying to explain."

"Travel in shadows boys and girls," said Cole, trying to end the argument before it started. With that, they all started sneaking into the tree house, trying to get to the top. Jay almost lost his balance on the way up, but Zane caught him and brought him up. Soon, they were on the slanted part of the roof, looking inwards at Lloyd. He was laughing a bit to himself.

"It's almost finished! Soon, my fortress will be complete! You!" He pointed at Mezmo. "Hold up that sign for me!" He eagerly grabbed a sign that said "No Girls [Cept 4 Lin] or Ninja". Lloyd pulled a lever that made Mezmo plummet to the ground. He smirked and leaned over the hole, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Booby trap!" Mezmo hit several branches on the way down before finally hitting the ground. The ninja and kunoichi made their way up the roof to cut the ropes. Rose, Zane, and Cole went over to the rope, where Rose cut the first rope, then soon after Zane, making the whole tree house shake and slide, Serpentine falling out of it. Lloyd looked upwards and saw the ninja and kunoichi.

"I SAID NO NINJA!" The girls looked down at Lloyd and glared.

"WE'RE KUNOICHI!" Lloyd rolled his eyes.

"Whatever! Who cares?! ATTACK!"

"EVERYONE, RETREAT," called out Skales, making their safety a priority. The Serpentine all started leaving. Kai looked up towards where the third rope was tied, where Cole was standing by.

"Cole, wait til we're off the tree house! Then cut the line!" Cole nodded in understanding before Skales looked up at him.

"You will obey my every command." Cole's eyes became red and swirled. He put his hands together and bowed.

"I will obey your every command," he said in a monotone voice. Zane and Rose jumped down to meet the others.

"Where's Cole," asked Rose in a worried voice. Kim looked like she was about to fall off.

"This whole place is coming down!" She tried to walk closer in, so that she wasn't on the edge, but then Cole jumped onto the roof, shaking it enough that she fell off with a scream. Kai turned towards her, running to try and catch her.

"KIM!" She plummeted, but caught a loose board.

"I'm okay!" Kai sighed and went back to Cole, who was glaring at them all.

"No one goes anywhere until you deal with me!" Kim tried pulling herself up after hearing that.

"Come on Kim, you're strong as steel, you can do this!"

"Ssstrong asss sssteel, eh? How opportune for me then." She turned and saw Skales, who was climbing down a nearby ladder. His tail was rattling as she looked at him, right at his eyes. "Look into my eyesss. I control you now." She tried to look away.

"Can't… keep… looking…" On the rooftop, the others were staring at Cole.

"What's gotten into him," asked Kai.

"He's under their control now," said Rose. "He won't listen to us now, he'll only listen to the Serpentine that hypnotized him!"

"Well then Rose, if you know so much, then tell us how we can get him out of his trance?!" She glared at him.

"Panicking isn't gonna help anyone Jay," she yelled.

Down below, Skales was walking away, with Lloyd following after him.

"Don't go," whined Lloyd. "We have to protect my tree house fortress!" Skales looked at him in total annoyance and glared.

"Your tree houssse? It'sss about time we did thisss!" He started backing up, leaving Lloyd confused.

"Did what?" Skales pulled a lever, making Lloyd plummet into a cage. The other Serpentine clapped at the fact that they no longer had to listen to Lloyd.

"Now to get the ssstaff," declared Skales.

On the rooftop, they were all backing up from Cole. Rose threw off her zukin, trying to reach him.

"Come on Cole, it's me, Rose. We're friends, right?" He kicked her in the face. "OW! Okay, I guess that didn't work." Bree looked around.

"What should we do? We're going to get crushed it we don't get off soon?"

"Jump maybe," suggested Sam. Cole started attacking them like a feral animal, breaking off chunks of the roof with a swing of his scythe.

"No, but we could climb down one side," suggested Zane. "There is only one of him, after all." Finally, Kim climbed over the side, her eyes closed. Kai looked over at her with concern in his eyes.

"Kim, are you okay? It took you a while to get back up." Her eyes snapped open, red and swirled. They all gasped.

"Oh no, they got the two strongest members of our team," said Jay in a defeated and panicked voice. "We are so hooped!"

"Destroy the ninja…" She started swinging her Chigiriki at them. Sam looked back at Jay.

"Jay, try shocking them both! Maybe it'll snap them out of it!" He looked at his friends sadly.

"Sorry guys, but this is gonna hurt you a lot more then it's gonna hurt me!" He started swinging it around until it gathered up enough lightning to zap them both. They were both sent backwards, but when they got up, their eyes were still red. Cole ran up to Jay and pushed him off of the roof while Kim started slowly climbing up the rope.

"JAY," all of the non-hypnotized team members cried out. Jay managed to grab onto a rope, one of the ones that had been keeping the building up. He used it to swing onto the tree house, but it started shaking even more where he landed.

"That is a serious safety hazard!" Rose looked uncomfortable as Kim started climbing up the final rope.

"I've got an idea. Just," she looked at her teammates nervously, "if he doesn't remember and you guys say anything to Cole about if after this is all over," her expression turned angry, "I'll throttle you all!" Bree nodded.

"Fine, we won't tell him, just do what you have to so he doesn't kill us!" She nodded and walked over to him. He held up his Scythe, ready to cut her down, but before he could, she threw off his zukin and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him towards her and kissing him. He stopped, looking shocked as he blinked. She pulled away and threw her zukin back up as his eyes returned to normal.

"Rose? What happened?" She sighed in relief.

"Oh thank the First Spinjitsu Master you don't remember!" He raised an eyebrow.

"Remember what?" Suddenly, the tree house started shaking even more. He looked over and saw that Kim was where the final rope was, ready to cut it. "Kim? What is going on?!" Kai looked at her in horror.

"No, Kim, don't!" Suddenly, the sound of a flute came sharply into hearing range, making Kim blink before her eyes returned to normal. She held her head like she had a headache.

"What… What am I doing?" They all turned to see Sensei Wu, Nya, and Lin on the back of Flame.

"We're getting out of here, because this whole place is coming down," said Nya. Kim jumped on behind her, and the other seven had to figure out how to fit on one dragon. The tree house fell down as they started flying back towards the monastery.

"That flute," said Kai, looking at it.

"It cancels their powers? Why didn't you tell us Sensei," asked Sam.

"It's as old as the Serpentine themselves. I did not want it to be used unless it was absolutely necessary. But we must hurry, the monastery's unguarded! Quickly Flame!" The dragon beat its wings all the harder to get back to the monastery.

* * *

When they got back to the monastery, it had been burned to the ground.

"We're too late," said Kai, looking at the scene in horror. "Those snakes!" He pounded Flame's hide with his fist, then stroked it gently once he remembered whom he was riding. "Sorry boy." Rose looked at it sadly.

"The library is gone… nothing but ashes… all those wonderful stories, lost forever…" The dragons were literally trying to crawl out of the dragon's keep. Cole's eyes widened in fear.

"Rocky! Hang on Rocky, I'm coming!" Once Flame landed, Cole instantly went to the dragon's keep to let the dragons out. The rest of them jumped off of the dragon, their zukins off.

"Our home…" said Kai in a destitute voice. Kim looked at where her room had been and saw that there were several melted lumps of metal.

"The statues my brother made for me…" Zane looked up at his dragon.

"Shard, put this out!" The dragon used its icy breath to smother the flames, but the damage had already been done. "The training equipment, all gone…" Jay came up behind Zane, burying his face in his shoulder.

"Our video games, gone!" Sam went and looked at the seashell necklaces her father was always sending her, only to see them be burnt and even more fragile than before. Sensei Wu looked around and saw that there was no staff.

"They stole their staff back." Lin looked at where her room had once been.

"All my dresses... and all the stuff Dad sent me..." Bree looked around at the burned down monastery.

"What do we do now Sensei? I mean… I was all for traveling around, but… not like this… I never thought this would happen." Rocky started nuzzling Cole, obviously scared.

"Don't worry buddy, we'll figure something out." Kai picked up a burnt wood chip, glaring at it and crushing it in his hand before pointing an accusatory finger at Zane.

"If you hadn't followed that stupid bird, none of this would've ever happened!" Sensei Wu gave him a warning look.

"Kai." Rose shook her head.

"No Sensei, Kai's right! Your library was destroyed! That was thousands of years worth of stories and knowledge!" Jay stormed over to Zane.

"Because of you, my high score has been deleted!" Kim nodded, getting in Zane's face.

"I was hypnotized, and now I've lost the only things that I've ever gotten from my brother!" Sam held up the necklaces.

"These were the only things my father ever gave me! And now they're gone! What am I gonna tell him?!" Zane backed up a couple of steps.

"This is a teaching moment. We must learn from this."

"A teaching moment," said Cole angrily as he stomped towards Zane. "What's wrong with you?! Don't you get it?! EVERYTHING'S GONE!" Bree got between Cole and Zane.

"Calm down Cole! We can figure something out!" He just glared at her.

"Oh, so you're defending him? Oh yeah, I forgot you like being homeless! Well just because you like it doesn't mean we want it! We don't want to live like YOU!"

"ENOUGH!" They all turned to Sensei Wu. "We are all at fault! Zane is your brother, and Bree is your sister. He did nothing wrong by alerting you of Lloyd's activities, which could've provided him a foothold in Ninjago, and Bree has done nothing wrong by defending him. In fact, she was the only one of you who saw clearly in this situation. Now apologize at once." They all looked down guiltily and turned towards the two of them.

"I'm sorry Zane, I," started Kai, but then he stopped when he saw that neither Zane nor Bree were there. They looked and saw that their dragons were flying away.

"Great, we scared them away," said Rose. "I feel horrible." Kim looked sad, but then had a determined expression as she went over to Steel.

"I'm the best rider, I'll go-"

"No," said Sensei Wu, cutting her off. She turned towards him in surprise.

"But, why not? Sensei, Zane is our brother, and Bree's our sister! We can't just let them-" He held up a hand, cutting off her words.

"Sometimes, people need time to themselves. If they do return, then they are open to your words, but for now they need time to recover from the pain you all inflicted."

* * *

Back at the home base of the Serpentine, Skales was walking at the front, holding the staff, while Mezmo was toting around Lloyd on a rope, with General Slithraa next to him. Lloyd looked afraid, and leaned over to Slithraa.

"Do something general! You're-you're still under my command, right?" General Slithraa looked at Lloyd, then at Skales angrily.

"Enough!" Everyone stopped to look at him. "I am the general," he said, hitting his chest before gesturing to the staff, "and you will return my ssstaff at onccce!" Skales looked at the staff, then held it behind him.

"No." Everyone started talking amongst themselves, surprised that Skales would do such an open act of treason.

"You dare challenge my command," Slithraa asked in an offended voice. Lloyd smirked at what he thought would be the quick return of the general's staff, when suddenly the other Serpentine warriors started chanting.

"Ssslither Pit! Ssslither Pit! Ssslither Pit! Ssslither Pit!" Skales smirked proudly at how well his coup was going.

"I guessssss we'll have to fight for it," he said, gesturing to the staff, "in the Slither Pit!" All of the Serpentine, short of General Slithraa, started cheering. Lloyd looked at them all in confusion.

Soon enough, Mezmo was on top of what looked like a balcony with switches in front of him, holding the staff. Down below, Skales and General Slithraa were standing in front of each other in what looked like a circle. Lloyd's hand was tied up to an ice column, and was trying to escape. Mezmo looked down at the two about to fight.

"Winner getsss the ssstaff and leadsss the tribe! You know the rulesss, there are none, but in the Ssslither Pit, whatever I sssay goesss!" The two nodded. "Alright, fight!" Slithraa and Skales turned to face each other, circling each other at first. Then, Slithraa made the first move. He spun around, swinging his tail so that it would trip Skales, but Skales merely jumped over it. He went in to punch Slithraa, but Slithraa caught him by the wrist and pushed his arm downwards, going in to punch Skales in the face. Skales moved to the side and jumped up, wrenched his arm out of Slithraa's grasp and backhanding him in the face. Slithraa made a cry of pain, backing up a bit before shaking his head to try and straighten out his thoughts.

Lloyd looked on at the battle, but then saw a frozen skeleton holding a rolled up parchment of some sort. His curiosity and greed got the best of him, and for the sake of knowing what it is, he decided it had to be his. He looked at his guard to make sure the guard wasn't paying attention before reaching over to the parchment. He kept stretching, trying to get close enough, when finally he had his hands on it. Pulling it free, he unrolled it as best as he could and looked at it.

"Whoa, check it out! It's a map, with the names of the Serpentine tribes on it!" The guard heard him and turned around, but the map was gone, and Lloyd just waved at the guard. The guard shrugged and returned to the fight as Lloyd pulled the map back out.

"So, if this is where I found these guys, then they must be the Hypnobrai. Heh heh, of course that's the name of snakes with mind control."

"Two weaponsss," called out Mezmo as he pulled a lever. Suddenly, a chandelier like object holding a variety of ice like weapons dropped down. Slithraa grabbed a shield and an ax while Skales grabbed two swords. Slithraa threw the ax at Skales, who dodged as it whizzed towards him. The ax embedded itself in a wall, causing the whole place to shake and icicles to fall directly on Slithraa. He lifted up his shield just in time to keep from getting skewered.

"Ssside Wonder," said Mezmo as he pulled another lever. Suddenly, the Slither Pit tilted towards the side Skales was on, making them both lose their balance. Slithraa quickly regained his balance.

"Go general go," called out Lloyd, making his guard turn towards him again, soon dismissing the boy's actions.

Slithraa's tail started rattling, and he opened his eyes wide so Skales couldn't help but look at them. Skales, in turn, jump kicked Slithraa's face, forcibly making Slithraa shut his eyes and make a cry of pain. Skales tried to strike Slithraa with his swords, but Slithraa kept moving his shield to block. Finally, Skales started moving in a strange way, moving like he was a piece of paper in a gentle wind. It made Slithraa get very disoriented, and left Skales with the chance to kick Slithraa in the face once more, knocking him to the ground and making his shield fly away.

"He usssed Fang Qwon Do," said Rattla. Lloyd looked at Slithraa with a worried expression.

"Get up," he cried out desperately. "Get up!" General Slithraa tried to get up, but was unable to, and went limp.

Mezmo came down to the pit with the staff, grabbing Skales's arm and holding it up.

"We have a winner!" Everyone started cheering as Skales was handed the staff. Skales shone brightly with a golden light as he began to transform, his legs melding together into a snake tail. His appearance turned into that of what General Slithraa used to have, with Slithraa now losing his tail as it turned into legs, his appearance now that of what Skales's used to be. All of the Hypnobrai started chanting Skales's name as Slithraa tried to stand up. Skales glared at Slithraa, gesturing with his staff.

"You will be loyal to me now!" Slithraa gave a solemn nod.

"I will do asss you command," he said in a defeated voice. Skales then turned to Lloyd, glaring.

"You," he said in an accusatory tone, "leave and never return! If you do, we will devour you!" Lloyd gulped as his rope was untied. He ran out screaming.

"I don't wanna be snake fooooooooood!"

* * *

In the shelter of some rocks, the group was sitting under a tarp, eating some strange creature over a fire.

"Wh-what are we eating again," asked Kai as he shivered.

"Mud newt," answered Cole, taking a bite out of it. "Not bad for something that lives underground." Lin sniffled and nuzzled into her uncle.

"Uncle, are we gonna be homeless forever?" He gently petted her head.

"No Lin, we will find a home soon, somehow." Rose gagged, but swallowed her bite of food.

"A-At least we had the Sais to grow herbs… that's something right?" Jay spat out the mud newt.

"Even with herbs this is still disgusting! No amount of thyme or rosemary can make this taste good!" He threw a rock into a can and cheered. "Yeah, a new high s-score!" Kim looked over at their dragons, and saw how much Steel was shivering.

"Poor girl, you're so cold. You must miss your nice, warm dragon keep."

"Remember," said Sensei Wu, "we must be thankful for what we still have."

'What do we have," asked Cole. "Our home is gone!" Sam looked down at her necklace.

"Well, we have each other I guess?" Kai nodded.

"Sam's right. I miss home just as much as you guys," he looked down, "but I miss Zane and Bree more. It's my fault they're gone. I shouldn't have started that fight." Cole shook his head.

"It's my fault Bree's gone. I yelled at her for defending Zane and trying to make the best out of a bad situation." Kim sighed.

"We're all to blame. We all got mad at Zane and no one stepped up to defend him but Bree. Cole may have been the only one to say anything to Bree, but I think we were all mad at her for defending him." They all nodded sadly.

"I wish Zane and Bree were here right now," said Jay.

"Zane," said Nya in a confused tone. Jay looked at her like she was crazy.

"Yeah, you know, Zane! The white ninja? The smart strange one? And don't forget Bree, the yellow kunoichi! She was the, well, she doesn't really have a type. The traveling one I guess?" Nya shook her head.

"No, Zane," she said happily, pointing. They all turned and saw Zane walking towards them.

"Zane," they all cheered, walking over to him.

"Zane, we're so sorry for everything we said," said Jay. "We're a team, and that means we're all responsible!" Sam nodded.

"Yeah, we were so hurtful to you and Bree, but she was the only one being a real teammate!" Zane just smiled at them.

"You do not need to apologize to me," he frowned sadly, "although I do believe that Bree's feelings were quite hurt." He smiled again. "But she is willing to forgive you once we get to where she is." Kai was confused.

"Wait, where is she? And if she left because of it, but you didn't, then why, why did you leave in the first place? Isn't the things we said the reason?" Zane shook his head.

"Of course not. I saw the bird again and I followed him. Bree was able to identify him as a falcon." They all looked at each other and smiled, coming in for a group hug.

"That's our Zane," said Cole.

"We're happy to have you back," said Nya. Even Lin looked happy.

"Now we don't have to eat underground bugs!" He gave her a look of confusion.

"You have been… eating bugs Lin?" He looked back up at everyone else. "Are you so happy then because it is my turn to cook?" They laughed again.

"Yes Zane," said Sensei Wu, "we would love for you to make dinner! Perhaps you could make something edible out of these mud newts." He smiled brightly.

"But I already made it! Bree and I passed by a town on our way to our location and picked up some supplies for cooking! Come," he said, turning, "I want to show you what I've found. I think you will all be pleased." They all looked at each other and shrugged before following him.

* * *

They were getting close to the crest of a rocky, barren hill, with Zane leading them all. Lin had been whining about how tired she was, so Cole was giving her a piggyback ride. Zane had stopped just before they would've gotten over the hill and turned towards his friends.

"I cannot explain it, but I feel a strange connection with the falcon. I think he is trying to help show us the path we need to take." He started walking again and they followed him, soon coming over the crest of the hill and showing them a grand old pirate ship. Zane smiled at it. "Our new home." They all gasped and looked on in awe of it, everyone making comments about how wondrous it was. Jay sniffed the air, almost in tears.

"Do I smell pie?" Zane nodded.

"Cobblerberry. Oh, and I made burtleberry, and apple! Bree made a strawberry pie as well, and it smells most delectable!" Jay took in a deep breath and shed a tear as they started running towards the ship, with Zane and Sensei Wu staying behind. Zane grabbed Cole's shoulder.

"Hey, what are you," started Cole, but Zane had a serious look on his face.

"Perhaps you should let the young Garmadon go to her food while we talk." Lin nodded.

"Yeah, put me down! I'm never too tired for pie!" Cole shrugged and let her down, watching her run off. Cole turned back to Zane.

"Okay, why am I staying back?" Zane looked down in the ship.

"There is a room down below with a K carved into the door, next to one with an N carved into it. That's where you'll find Bree, in the one with the K. Apologize, and I'm sure she will forgive you." He nodded.

"You're right. Thanks Zane, I was so excited I almost forgot!" He ran towards the ship. Sensei smiled at him proudly.

"I am proud of you Zane." He put a hand on his shoulder. "You handled that situation very well." Zane smiled.

"Thank you Sensei."

"One day I promise, we will find your family."

"But, I've already found them," said Zane, looking down at everyone as they ran to the ship. Sensei Wu smiled and nodded.

"I feel there is more to you than meets the eye. There's something special about you Zane."

"Sensei," asked Zane, a thoughtful expression on his face, "will I become the Green Ninja?"

"It's too early to tell," he responded, "but if it's in your path, you'll know. Come now, it would be a shame to let them eat all that pie." Zane smiled brightly.

"But there is a pot roast in there as well, and mashed potatoes, and buttered carrots, and also shrimp appetizers, and Cole's favorite fried mozzarella sticks with marinara. I should hope they eat those first, as pie should come after a proper meal." Sensei Wu laughed.

"Yes, that would be the wise thing to do." They started walking towards the ship.

* * *

Cole was walking down below, knocking on the door marked with a K.

"Bree? Are you in there?"

"Yeah," came her voice softly.

"I'm coming in," he said as he opened the door. Bree was sitting on a top bunk, her feet hanging over the side, holding a locket.

"Come here to berate my life style again," she said in an accusatory tone. Cole flinched as she said that, then climbed up on the bunk and sat next to her.

"No, I came to apologize. I'm really, really sorry about what I said. You were just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Besides, you know what it's like to be traveling and stuff, so I should've listened to you, not yelled at you. I was a real jerk." He looked over at the locket. Inside was a picture of a brunet man and a blonde woman. "Who are those?" She sighed.

"My parents. They're the reason I travel around." She looked back at Cole. "I don't like the lifestyle I live, okay? I just," she sighed and looked down, "I just act like I do so people don't get worried. Even my nana and little sister don't know what I'm really doing. But I hate living the way I do. I always have." Cole raised an eyebrow.

"So if you don't like being a drifter, then, why do you travel around?"

"I… promise not to tell anyone?" Cole nodded, smiling.

"Of course you can trust me! Teammates are there for each other!" She looked at him, then back at the locket.

"I travel around, looking for my parents. When I was born, they just… dropped me off at my nana's doorstep. The same thing happened with my little sister. Just one day, there was a knock, and then when we opened the door, there she was. She looks a lot like my dad. I saw them running off and chased after them, but I rolled my ankle. Once I was old enough, I left home to find them and just ask… why. Why didn't they want to raise us?" Cole patted her on the back.

"I'm sure they have a good reason Bree. But don't worry, we'll find your parents someday." She smiled at him.

"Thanks Cole." She gave him a hug. He looked surprised, but smiled and hugged back.

"Now come on," he said, letting go of her, "I'm hungry, and there's pie up there that's calling my name!" She gave him a surprised look, but then laughed.

"Alright then, let's go get some food!" She pushed herself off of the bed, watching Cole do the same as he followed her back up.

* * *

Upstairs, everyone was enjoying their dinners and laughing. Suddenly, Zane picked up a plate of shrimp and threw it in Cole's face. Everyone laughed heavily at that as a food fight started. Lin crawled under the table once again.

"I WILL TORTURE ALL THOSE WHO STAIN MY DRESS!"

Outside, Lloyd looked on sadly, not even noticing Kyria hiding under the table. He looked as if he wanted to join them, but then sighed, walking away and looking at his map.

 **Song Of Hope: I got this done so fast, I'm so proud of myself! I hope that I had some good character evelopment with the canon and OC characters!**


	5. Episode 5 Snakebit

**Song Of Hope: This was the chapter I was excited to do! I hope you guys all like the turn of events in here, just like how much I loved writing it! Sorry it took so long, I kept rewriting and rewriting it, just to get the right feel. Also I've been working a lot lately. R &R**

The first morning in their new home was a most beautiful morning. There was not a cloud in the sky. It was so peaceful, until Sensei Wu opened both the ninja and the kunoichi's bedroom doors and started banging on a gong.

"Evil doesn't sleep and neither should you," he said with that obnoxious, morning person voice. Everyone was making noises of irritation as Sensei Wu kept banging the gong, with Zane sleeping soundly right through it. "In order to reach your full potential, we must greet each day as an opportunity!"

"Would it be bad to sand blast my sensei," asked a sleepy and irritated Sam, tightly clutching the Tonfas of Sand she'd slept with as she eyed Sensei Wu from her bunk underneath Bree.

"Yes," answered Bree, groaning and jumping off of the bunk above.

"Okay, okay," said Kai in an irritated and defeated tone, "we're up." He looked back towards Zane. "Well, most of us." Cole groaned and sat up, sliding off his bunk.

"Seriously, why can't I be as heavy of a sleeper as Frosty?" Sam, obviously exhausted and in a zombie like state, came into the room and just pulled on Zane's ear.

"Ow, ow!" Instantly, Zane was awake. She muttered something and then walked back out, going pasted Sensei Wu to get back to her room. Kim stretched and cracked her back.

"Ugh, I'm so tired. What time is it even?" Sam looked outside.

"Barely even 7, judging by the shadows." Kai groaned upon hearing that.

"Ugh! Sensei, if you want us to reach our full potential, shouldn't we at least get a full night of rest?" He went to open the blinds and they fell off. Cole stretched, trying to get the kinks out of his back.

"You call that rest? I think my back has more lumps than the mattress!" Rose went to the mirror to put on her make up. It stayed there for a bit, but then one of the supports broke, and then the other, and then the mirror crashed onto the sink and shattered before the larger pieces fell to the floor and shattered everywhere. She screeched.

"Glass! There's glass everywhere! Where are my shoes?!" The girls all grabbed their shoes and Kim tossed Rose hers. Jay went over to the sink to brush his teeth.

"We were up so late last night, talking about how cool it is to have a new ninja headquarters-"

"And kunoichi," interjected Kim as she walked by, making Jay roll his eyes.

"Whatever, ninja/kunoichi headquarters," he put the toothpaste on the brush and turned on the water, which only spat out some strange green dusty substance, "I guess we just lost track of time. Since the Serpentine burned down the monastery, I'm just glad we have a roof over our heads," he started to brush his teeth and then spat out the toothpaste in disgust, sputtering. Kim had gotten a broom and dustpan and was starting to sweep up the broken glass.

"Yeah, a roof over our heads is great, but I'm excited that there was an old quarry nearby that we could make into a good dragon's keep! Steel looked so happy!" Zane was doing stretches.

"What is our lesson today Sensei? Mastering the strike of the scorpion?" He started to turn towards the door, "Or perhaps that," he jumped up a bit, but then went straight through the floorboards. Sensei Wu looked at all of this destruction going on and stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"I think today's lesson will be chores." All of the ninja and kunoichi rushed to the door, short of Zane, who was stuck in the floor.

"Chores?!"

"Ninja fight Sensei," said Cole with an annoyed voice, "we do not clean."

"And kunoichi," the girls chimed in. Rose crossed her arms.

"Why do you guys always forget about our name? We're not ninja. We're kunoichi." Sensei Wu sighed.

"Before a fight breaks out, may I tell you why I am asking you to do chores?" They all stopped and looked at him. "In order to respect ourselves, we must respect our new home, and where we are from, and The Destiny's Bounty is a long way from becoming a proper headquarters for Spinjitsu Masters. Think of it as a baby's first bath." Bree smiled fondly.

"I remember my baby sister's first bath! It was adorable!" Sam rolled her eyes.

"Yeah but I doubt it's going to be anything like this!"

"It may not be, but it is far more important," said Sensei Wu wisely. "Now, I'm going to take Nya and Kyria into town to help me retrieve some supplies. All of our clothes, blankets, and other such pieces of furniture are gone, so we need to replace them. I want this place spotless when I return. And put your backs into it! Perhaps if you all behave well, I shall bring some video games for you to play with on your down time." He hit the gong one more time before walking away. Cole went and helped Zane out of the floor while Rose pushed her way into the room, completely dressed, one hand covering her face, one hand holding her make up bag.

"Out of my way! Our mirror's gone and I need to do my make up! Until I'm done, nobody look at me!" The boys just shrugged and let her use their mirror. "I mean it, not one of you looks until I've finished putting on my make up!" She started doing her eyeliner. Cole looked over at her sideways, so he didn't see her face.

"Rose, I'm sure you're plenty pretty without the make up." She took her compact and started doing her blush.

"I just like wearing make up," she said with a glare. "It's a form of self expression, not necessarily just beauty." She finished up with some lipstick and stood up straight, smiling. "There, now I just need my sealant." She pulled out a can of a makeup setting spray and closed her eyes, spraying it at her face. The boys looked on in shock as the other girls, now ready and dressed, filed in.

"Does she do this every morning," asked Zane, leaning over to Bree, who nodded.

"Yep. You get used to it. Once that stuff's sprayed on, nothing can get it off. Seriously, she has another special mix just to get the sealant off so that the make up doesn't ruin her skin." Sam looked around.

"This place is just as dusty as our room." Kai groaned, looking around.

"It's gonna take forever to get this place cleaned up!" Jay's face lit up with an idea.

"Unless," he started, "we put more than just our backs into it, eh?"

* * *

In one of the rooms, Cole used his Spinjitsu to quickly gather up a variety of useless junk, carrying it outside and leaving it with a Garage Sale sign. All over the ship, Zane was freezing rooms while Kai was melting the ice to carry away all the dust and cobwebs. Jay found some old stuff that looked like ancient technology. He got excited and started messing with it, updating it to relatively modern technology, including using some of the old parts to rebuild his gaming system. Sam and Kai worked together to make new windows for the ship, while Kim and Rose worked together to make new wooden boards to replace the old, rotted wood. Then, they all pulled to lift the sail up so that Bree could use her Fans to blow all the rest of the dust away.

* * *

Once Sensei Wu returned with Nya and Lin, he saw that they were all playing a video game, although Rose did not look anywhere near interested. Sensei Wu and Nya were pleasantly surprised, while Lin looked indifferent, now in a black t-shirt with a green star and a flowing black tattered skirt, with purple underneath the tattered parts. Sensei Wu was carrying a lot of shopping bags. Kai heard them coming in and smirked, turning to face them.

"What took you so long," he asked smugly.

"Wow," said Nya in appreciation, "this place looks amazing! You guys did all this? I didn't even know there was a TV or a gaming system here!" Jay smirked.

"That's cause I made them!" Kai and Sam elbowed him while Kim actually got up to whack him in the back of the head. "OW! Okay, with a little help." Cole looked at Nya, smiling.

"Ninja and kunoichi don't just fight Nya, we clean!" He turned back to his game.

"You have exceeded my expectations," said Sensei Wu proudly as Lin pulled out a bag of candy. "Niece, where did you get that bag of sweets?" She giggled.

"I stole them." He frowned.

"Lin Alexandria Garmadon, you will return those candies!" She started shoving them all in her mouth and Sensei Wu snatched the bag away. Nya looked out the window and heard a horn honking, confused.

"What's up with that horn? It's so… loud!" She narrowed her eyes at it. "They're in a car that looks like it was made out of spare parts!" Jay groaned.

"Oh, it's my parents," he whined. "They must be here to visit! Please, if they start yapping, just don't get them going okay? They don't know when to quit, and if you start talking then they'll start talking, and then suddenly half the day is gone before you know it, and it's not even-"

"We get it," said Kai loudly, cutting off Jay, "they talk a lot!" He turned towards Rose, nudging her slightly. "The cherry doesn't fall far from its blossom."

Outside, the couple bumped into the junk pile that Cole had made. They were both wearing brown hats and goggles, and smiling brightly.

"Oh, take a note Edna," said the man, "either better breaks or a better bumper." He gasped when he was all the stuff out there and threw off his hat and goggles, showing his white hair. "Oh, look at all this great stuff! They can't just get rid of it!" He nudged his wife. "We should've brought the trailer Edna!" She threw off her hat and frowned, revealing her brown hair, wrinkles, and pink rimmed glasses.

"This ain't a flea market Ed! We're here for Jay!" He cupped his hand to his hear.

"What's that? Did you take the note?" She sighed and took out a notepad and a pencil.

"I'm writing it down Ed." The group came out of the ship, with Jay in the front.

"Mom, Dad," he said, trying to look happy, "what are you doing here?"

"Oh look, it's my baby boy," said Edna excitedly, throwing her arms up in the air. "It's been so long since we've heard from you!"

"Mom," he said in an annoyed voice, "I called you two days ago." Ed started laughing.

"Well, it's not soon enough son," he said, jumping out of the car and walking over to Jay, Edna following behind him. "When are you coming out to the junkyard, ey? You say you're coming and then uh ya don't!"

"Dad," he said in a lowered and irritated voice, "do we have to talk about the junkyard in front of my friends?" Edna just gave a casual wave of her hand.

"He hates it when we tell people he was born in a junkyard." She noticed the girls. "Oooh, and who are all of you? Which one of you precious girls is Jay's girlfriend?" The girls all blushed in embarrassment as Edna focused on Nya. "Oh, it must be you young lady! You are so cute! You all are, but you've got a different kind!" Nya blushed and smiled while Rose looked downward. "You're just my son's type!"

"MOM!" Nya smiled a bit.

"It's a pleasure meeting you." Lin moved out from behind all of them, slightly irritated.

"Why are we all out here," she whined, "it's too hot!" Ed and Edna looked at her and smiled brightly.

"Oh, you are so adorable!" Edna knelt down a bit and smiled at her. "Hi there, my name's Edna! Oh, you're so cute, have a candy!" She handed Lin a butterscotch candy. Lin looked in surprise at the candy, her eyes moving back and forth between that and Edna.

"You're just gonna give me candy for being cute?" Ed nodded.

"Well, you're just so gosh darned adorable!" Sensei Wu moved in between them.

"Perhaps you should not give her candy." Edna raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? Oh, I always wanted a little girl," she smiled and looked over at Jay, "but we were always so happy to have Jay in our lives! Oh," she started digging in her pockets, "I think I have baby pictures somewhere!" Jay stepped forward, trying to save himself.

"How about we do a tour," he exclaimed desperately. "I know how much you guys love tours!" They both looked at him excitedly.

"A tour?!"

* * *

He brought them up to the bridge, which, thanks to Kim, Sam, and Kai, had a bunch of high tech things in it, such as a large screen with a scanner built in and other ship controls. Lin was following them and getting candies periodically from Edna.

"And this is the bridge," said Jay, soon gesturing to a periscope, "this extends into a periscope," he jumped up and pulled it down, looking through it, "this lets us know what's going on in Ninjago," he let go and walked over to a small machine, "and this, if a Serpentine's not giving us the answers we want, and we're up late at night-"

"A neuro apparatus to read their minds," said Edna excitedly, cutting him off.

"An audio appliance to make them talk," asked Ed with enthusiasm.

"No," answered Jay, shaking his head as he put a nearby cup under it and turned it on, "a cappuccino machine." They both went "ooo" at that.

"Ha ha, amazing son," said Ed proudly. "We're so proud of you!"

Cole walked over to a big, shiny red button and gestured towards it.

"Why don't you tell them about the button Jay," he asked, smiling. Jay laughed nervously as everyone started to pile into the bridge.

"It's not ready yet Cole," he replied, glaring and putting his hand over the button.

"Ooo, what's the button," asked Edna excitedly as she gave Kyria another piece of candy.

"He's working on a special defense system," said Zane. Sam nodded.

"Unlike anything we've ever seen in all of Ninjago," she folded her arms across her chest, smiling, "according to him at least."

"Something every ninja and kunoichi," said Kai, before any of the girl could interject, "headquarters needs," he finished, purposely trying to oversell it.

"Really," asked Ed, his interested peaked as he leaned down to look at the wiring. "Can I help?" He went to touch it, but Jay gently grabbed his dad's arm.

"No," he said all to quickly, "it's okay!" He let go of Ed's arm. "I don't need your help dad." He patted the stand where the button rested gently. "Just leave it alone." He saw the time on the monitor. "Hey, look at the time!" He started gently pushing away Ed and Edna. "Don't you need to get back before it gets dark? I told you, there's dangerous Serpentine out there." Bree nodded.

"He's… kinda right actually. We don't know what we'd do if you guys got captured." Lin looked at Edna sadly.

"You guys are leaving?" Edna patted her on the head gently.

"Oh, don't worry dear, we might just pop in again sometime soon!" Lin smiled at the thought as Cole came up behind Jay and place his hand on Jay's shoulder.

"Edna, it was a pleasure being shown Jay's baby butt. And I think we all enjoyed hearing about his first potty time!" Edna smiled brightly and went over to hug Jay.

"Oh, if you thought that was good, wait until you hear the story about the time I caught him kissing his pillow!" Jay gently pushed her away.

"Snakes Mom," said Jay urgently, his arms up in the air, "snakes!"

"Oh, alright," said Edna as she and Ed started walking away. "We're going, we're going!" They all followed them to the car and watched as they climbed in. Luin looked at them sadly.

"Promise you'll visit again?" Ed smiled and nodded.

"Of course we'll come back!" Edna looked up at Jay.

"So you promise to come to the junkyard and visit your mother and father?"

"Yes," said Jay annoyed, "I promise, but only if you leave." He started to take on a concerned tone. "I don't want you to get hurt! It's getting dark. Uh, your headlights are working, right?" Ed switched them on and they blinded the whole group.

"Ah heh, you like em," asked Ed. "I used a little extra juice!" He flipped them back off and started pulling out. "Bye son! Couldn't be more proud!" Edna turned around to yell over to him.

"And bring Nya with you, will ya? I can see why you like her!"

"Mom!" Finally, the Walker parents drove off into the distance.

"Now that they have left," said Sensei Wu, "perhaps Jay can teach us the art of," he tried to hold back a chuckle but he couldn't, "kissing pillows." He laughed a bit as everyone but him and Kyria joined in the laughter. Lin was still looking at Ed and Edna leaving sadly while Jay just groaned at Sensei Wu's comment.

* * *

As the Walker parents ripped down the road, Ed looked back sadly, then turned back towards the road.

"I don't think he's coming dear," he said.

"Stop it Ed," said Edna smiling, "he's coming!"

"No, he doesn't need us anymore," he sighed, "I just have to remember that." He turned back towards Edna. "Right it down for me, would ya?" He winked as Edna rolled her eyes.

"Oh dear!" She looked out at the road and saw it wasn't being illuminated. "Lights dear. It's getting dark." They flicked on.

"Right! Heh, thanks sugar plum!"

* * *

After dinner, Lin was getting dressed in her pajamas to go to bed. Her room was rather plain, but there was a noticeable star shaped green nightlight in the room. She was just starting to climb into bad as heard a knock on her door and turned towards it.

"Yeah?"

"Lin, it's me, your uncle." She looked back between the door and the bed, soon getting back out of it.

"Come in." He came in, the hallway light illuminating the room further. He looked at the nightlight.

"I never knew you didn't like sleeping in the dark." She looked embarrassed, but then started to laugh.

"Afraid of the dark? Me? I am the daughter of Lord Garmadon! I love the dark!" She started to laugh, but after seeing her uncle's look, sighed. "Yeah, I-I'm scared of the dark…" She hugged her arms. Sensei Wu walked into the room and sat on the side of her bed that faced the window, patting the spot next to him. She jumped up to sit next to him.

"I've noticed that you seemed rather sad when the Walkers left. Why is that?" She looked out the window.

"I-I thought it felt nice to be doted on. Nobody treated me well at Darkly's, and I don't remember my mom or dad. I know who my dad is though and he'd always send Cruncha or Nukal over to the school with messages from him, so I knew he cared about me. But my mom, I never heard anything from her. I don't even know her name. It was… nice to have a mom like person here to dote on me and Jay's dad acted how I always kinda of imagine how Dad would act if he were ever around." She looked up at him. "Uncle, to be bad, do I have to hurt people like Jay's mom and dad. They were both so nice to me for no reason." She looked down. "I-I don't wanna hurt such nice people." He smiled at her.

"There are many people like them in the world Lin. And yes, on the path of evil, you end up hurting them. You cannot be evil while also sparring people from pain." She looked back out the window, at the moon. Then, she got up and started walking around, a look on her face that said she was having an existential crisis.

"Uncle, I've been living with you guys for a long time now, at least for me. Everything's so different here than at Darkly's. And it's all just so weird to me!" She threw her hands up in the air. "I mean, at Darkly's, being bad was everything, and they always used my dad as an example! They always used him as a standard as to how evil everyone should be!" She looked down as she kept walking, Sensei Wu's eyes never leaving her. "And then, I came here, and everything changed for me. Even when I'm bad, you still care about me, when everyone was out to get each other at Darkly's. You guys are so kind to me, and it makes me think differently about everything. I actually felt guilty for stealing that bag of candy earlier, but we were taught that feeling bad about doing bad things wasn't what evil masterminds did." She sighed as she sat back down next to him, staring at her lap. "And then the Walkers came and they were even nicer. And they weren't just nice to me because I'm their niece. They were just… nice to me to be nice. You say that to be bad, we have to hurt people. I mean, I know when Lloyd unleashed the Serpentine, I said it was okay to hurt people because we're bad, but now I'm confused. I guess what I'm trying to say is… is… I don't think I wanna be bad anymore, but I also don't want to disappoint Dad. He's everything Darkly told me I'm supposed to be." She looked up at him, an expression desperate for guidance on her face. "What am I supposed to do Uncle?" Sensei Wu smiled brightly and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Lin, if you don't wish to be evil, then your father should support you, regardless of what Darkly's has told you. You must always remember that your life is yours, and your choices are yours alone. Whether you choose to be good or evil is up to you to decide. All I can say is that you do what you think is right, or rather, what is wrong should you choose to go down that way. Never have any regrets about the path you choose." He smiled and patted the top of her head. "Now go ahead and brush your teeth before you go to bed. You don't want to get cavities." She groaned, but got up and headed to the sink.

"Alright." He started walking out the door.

"Good night Lin."

"God night Uncle." He slowly closed the door.

* * *

Later that night, Lloyd was going through a foggy cemetery with a flashlight, holding a map. He was shaking with fear as crows cawed for a distance.

"It's not scary," he said, trying to reassure himself. "Okay, maybe just a little, but… I like scary, yeah! That's it." He turned around and started walking backwards so that he could see if anyone was trying to sneak up behind him. "I'm the son of the Dark Lord! I love the dark!" He turned back around, heading to the center of the cemetery. "Why, I eat this stuff for breakfast!" Suddenly, his flashlight shown upon a tree that looked like two snakeheads and he screamed. Once he realized what it was, he smirked, looking back down at the map. "I'm gonna make those Hypnobrai pay for betraying me! I have to find the Fangpyres. If there's anything a snake doesn't like, it's another snake!" He looked at the location of the Fangpyre tomb on the map before comparing it to where he was. "Here, by the mutated tree! I found it!" He pointed the flashlight down at the symbol of the Fangpyres. He got on his knees and started pushing away the fog, trying to see the tomb's symbol more clearly, revealing a two-headed snake, baring its teeth. "Soon, the Serpentine will know who their master is, and it will be I, Lloyd Garmadon!" He stood up dramatically as a bolt of lightning struck, making him yelp in fear. Once the lightning stopped, he looked down at the ground and found a button, which opened up the door to let a multitude of red and white Serpentine come out, making Lloyd scream in fear as he dropped the map and threw his hands over his head. He looked up and saw a red, two headed Fangpyre with a tail, holding a staff identically to the Hypnobrai staff, but with a red anti-venom instead, with a different symbol on it.

"And who," said the head on Lloyd's left.

"May I say released us," continued the head on Lloyd's right, a higher pitch than the other.

"From our captivity," finished asking the first head. Lloyd kept looking at them nervously.

"Uh, Lloyd. Lloyd Garmadon, s-son of the Dark Lord!" The two heads looked to each other, an obviously displeased look on their faces. Lloyd gulped and picked up the map once again. "I released you to make the Hypnobrai pay for betraying me." Their expressions changed.

"The Hypnobrai," asked the head on the right.

"Those hypnotizing deceivers," said the left head accusingly.

"It would be-"

"Our pleasure!" Lloyd smirked happily.

"Oh, good! I'll lead the way! Then after that, there's some ninja I want dealt with!" He rolled his eyes. "And kunoichi. They always yell at me if I forget to call them kunoichi! What is a kunoichi even, other than a girl ninja? Oh, anyway, then after that, we're gonna break into Darkly's Boarding School for Bad Girls, torment the teachers, and bust my sister out of there!" The two heads smirked.

"Sounds like," started the left head.

"You know-"

"What you want."

"But the Hypnobrai are strong," said the right head wisely.

"And we are few in numbers," continued the left one.

"We need-"

"Reinforcements." Lloyd looked confused.

"What'd you have in mind… uh… what's your name? Names?"

"We are," replied the right.

"Fangtom." Lloyd smiled.

"Nice to meet you General Fangtom! But, uh, how do you plan on getting more for your army?" They only smiles and made hissing sounds as they showed off their teeth.

* * *

Ed and Edna were finally driving back into the junkyard. Ed bumped the car into a street lamp that actually turned on after being hit.

"Home sweet home," said Ed after taking off his hat. Edna smiled and nodded, taking off hers as well. Ed got out of the car and grabbed his toolbox, heading out to what looked like a giant junk statue. "And back to the grind." Edna smiled and started heading into a trailer.

"Oh sweetie, you've been working on that thing day and night!" He laughed.

"You never know when Jay may show up!" She raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you say you thought he wouldn't cause he doesn't need us anymore Ed?" He cupped his hand to his hear.

"What's that Edna?" She laughed.

"Never mind dear! I'm gonna see if we have some leftovers in the fridge!" She closed the door to the trailer and turned on the lights as Ed finally got to the statue. He pulled out a blowtorch and grabbed some nearby metal to start welding onto the statue. Suddenly, someone ran behind him, loud enough for Ed to hear it. He stopped welding and lifted up his helmet, looking around.

"Uh, Edna? Was that you?" Edna opened up the trailer door.

"What Ed," she asked, shouting so he could hear her. "Are you hearing things again?" He turned off his blowtorch.

"Uh ya, say, ya turned on the security alarm before ya left, didn'tcha hon?" She stepped out and went to a box where there was a switch. She kept switching it on and off while nothing happened.

"Uh, must be broken!" Suddenly, the lights in the junkyard started turning off.

"Whoever you are," called out Ed, cupping his hands around his mouth and glaring, "my son knows Spinjitsu!" He could see the shadows of snakes and hearing their hissing as he ran over to Edna, who just looked confused.

"What is it? Oh, why are the lights out?!"

"Call Jay hon," ordered Ed in a panicked voice. "Someone's broken in, and I don't think they're human!"

"How about we wait until he calls you," came Lloyd's voice from the top of the trailer. He held up a disconnected phone and started laughing evilly as Fangtom stood next to him. Edna started shaking in fear.

"Ed!" Ed gently took her in his arms.

"Be strong Edna!" He glared up at the two. "I won't let 'em hurt you!" Fangtom turned towards Lloyd.

"If we plan," started the left head.

"To attack," continued the right.

"The Hypnobrai-"

"We'll need to grow-"

"Our army!" Lloyd still looked confused.

"And uh, how do we do that? You never really explained it on the way here or when I asked you in the cemetery. You just… kinda kept hissing and showing off your fangs as if that was supposed to mean something to me."

"Let's just say," said the right head.

"We Fangpyres bite off more," continued the left.

"Than we can chew." Lloyd smirked as he if actually understood what it meant.

"Have at it boys and girls," called out the left head. Fangpyres started coming out from everywhere, from behind junk piles, from inside junk piles, everywhere. They started biting anything that was remotely functional, making it turn into a Serpentine version of itself. Ed looked on in horror.

"My creations! They're turning them into-"

"An army," asked the left head.

"You are correct," said the right head.

"But we can also-"

"Turn people too." Ed and Edna hugged each other tightly as Fangtom bared their teeth, the other Fangpyres closing in on the frightened couple.

* * *

The next day, Jay was working hard on the button when Kai and Zane walked past him, holding junk.

"Sure got a lot of junk piling up," Kai said loudly. "If only there was a place we could get rid of it." Jay looked up and glared, a smudge of oil on his left cheek.

"Do you mind," he asked in an annoyed voice. "I'm trying to focus!"

"Hi Dad," said Cole as he walked pasted Jay, pretending to be on the phone, "Of course, I'd love to visit! What kind of son would I be if I didn't want to?" Bree elbowed Rose.

"Gee Rose, I sure would love to, you know, visit my parents." Rose nodded.

"Yeah, it'd be great to know where they are." Jay rolled his eyes.

"That's just laying it on thick. We're trying to save Ninjago here, aren't we? I promised to visit my parents, I know, but I don't have the time for it right now! My plate is totally full!" Kim and Sam just looked at each other.

"Do you have any idea why they're being so pushy about Jay visiting his folks," Kim asked.

"I'm not sure," answered Sam. "Kai and Zane and Bree I get since they have a lack of parents. I know Cole has his father, but I know nothing about his mom and Rose I know absolutely nothing about." Suddenly, Nya walked in on the bridge. Jay smiled brightly, a love struck puppy expression on his face as he wiped away the oil spot on his face with his glove.

"Hi Nya," he said in a dreamy voice.

"You gonna visit your parents today," she asked.

"Uh huh, sure am," he said enthusiastically. "Just about to leave!" Nya smiled.

"Tell them I say hi!" As Nya walked away, the ninja and kunoichi glared at him.

"What? So my plate's not that full!" Lin peaked her head in.

"Did I hear that Jay's visiting his parents?" Jay nodded.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Lin squealed in excitement.

"Can I come?! I promise to be good!" They all looked at each other.

"Good," asked Sam, looking back at Kyria. "You've never promised to be good for anything!" She made a pouty face at Jay.

"Please?" He sighed.

"Fine, but one wrong move and I'll Spinjitsu your butt home!" She smiled brightly and cheered.

* * *

Outside, where they had made the makeshift dragon keep, Jay was trying his hardest to pull his dragon out of his spot while everyone watched.

"Ugh, come on Wisp," he whined. "It'll be a quick visit, just in and out, nothing more." Lin pouted at him.

"In and out? Can't we stay for dinner?" He glared at her.

"Be glad I'm taking you at all." Sensei Wu walked away from Wisp, holding a giant thermometer.

"Hm, it's just as I suspected," he said, looked up at Jay. "The dragons are molting. They're shedding their scales."

"What does that mean," asked Jay, looking back up at Wisp, then back to Sensei Wu.

"Every adolescent dragon goes through a transformation before it becomes an adult," said Sensei Wu plainly, while Wisp looked down at Jay with a nauseated expression. "We must allow them to return east to the Fire Temple so that they can return to the Dragon's Keep, where they will reach the Spirit Coves so that they can complete their transformation." Jay looked at Sensei Wu sadly as the other ninja and kunoichi started coming over after seeing that Jay hadn't left yet, then looking sad as they heard what Sensei Wu had to say.

"Will we ever see them again," he asked, looking up at Wisp.

"It is hard to say," answered Sensei Wu, "but we need to allow them to follow their path."

"Rocky's going back to the Dragon's Keep," asked Cole sadly before going over to his dragon and letting it nuzzle him. "Say it isn't so Rocky." Kim went over to Steel, a tear in her eye.

"I don't want you to leave," she said, rubbing Steel's nose. "I'm gonna miss you." Jay sighed, but then saw an opportunity as Nya and Kai went over to Flame. He rubbed the back of his head, smiling.

"Well, I guess I gotta go on this long walk, all by myself," he said. Lin pouted up at him.

"Hey, I thought I was coming!" He rolled his eyes.

"You don't count, you're 9."

"I'm 11," she proclaimed indignantly. He rolled his eyes, but then returned to Nya, the love struck expression on his face back.

"Either way, it'd be nice to have company," he said slightly flirty, stretching out the last word, "close to my own age." Nya smiled and nodded, but then Kai, knowing exactly what Jay had really meant, smiled and leaned back so Jay could see him from behind Nya.

"Of course we'll go with you buddy," he said cheerfully.

"I could use a break," said Cole as the other ninja and kunoichi started walking over.

"Sounds like fun actually," said Rose, stretching. "It'd be nice to visit someplace new."

"All you had to do was ask," said Zane as Jay face palmed and sighed.

* * *

As they walked, they could see the dragons flying away while Sensei Wu played his sacred flute. Cole and Kim watched them sadly, with Cole putting a hand on Kim's shoulder as she wiped her eyes. Jay just sighed, looking down.

"Of all the days to loose our ride!" Zane walked up behind Sensei Wu, looking intensely at the sacred flute.

"That flute," he started, "you've never told us why it's so special." Sam nodded.

"You also never told us how it works to cancel out their powers. Is it magical in some way?" Sensei Wu stopped playing and held it up a bit.

"Long ago there were many flutes, created to combat the powers of the Serpentine and drive them underground. They were all made out of a special kind of wood from a tree that grew in a very specific part of Ninjago. Over time, Ninjago's forgotten its ancestor's wisdom, and now this is the only one. Not long ago we could've created more, but that once near forest like area has now been developed, and with advancement, so too happens the demolition of nature, and the loss of the trees meant the loss of more flutes. Now this flute is one of a kind, all because of people forgetting their ancestors and destroying them with carelessness." He started deliberately playing it in Jay's face, which made him very annoyed as he tried to wave it away, walking in front of Sensei Wu.

"I get it, respect your elders or else suffer the consequences." He turned away from Sensei Wu. "Boy, you guys are laying it on thick." He kept walking, but then stopped, a worried look on his face as Sensei Wu chuckled.

"Perhaps you are only hearing what you need to hear." Nya came up next to Jay, a little worried due to his body language.

"What is it," she asked.

"It's quiet," he said, a guarded look now on his face. "My family's never quiet!" He threw on his zukin and ran into the junkyard, while everyone else just looked at each other before throwing on their own zukins on. Sensei Wu looked back at Lin, who looked a little scared.

"What happened to Mr. and Mrs. Walker?"

"I don't know Lin, but stay behind me," he instructed. She nodded and stayed behind them as they all ran into the junkyard. Jay listened carefully and heard the muffled shouts of his parents coming from a broken refrigerator. He kicked open the door and saw his parents in there, struggling against chains while having their mouths duct taped.

"What happened," he asked in a panicked voice. "Who did this?!" He ripped the tape off of his mother's mouth, showing off two pointed white fangs.

"Oh sssweetheart, you came," she happily exclaimed. Jay quickly ripped the tap off of his father's mouth.

"Oh, you've gotta get outta here," his father proclaimed in a worried voice. "You shouldn't have come, it'sss the sssnakesss!" Sensei Wu's eyes widened ask he recognized the symptoms.

"The bite of the Fangpyre," he said. "Once they sink their teeth in, their venom can turn anything into a serpent, or any living creature into a Serpentine!" Ed and Edna jumped out of the fridge. "It's only a matter of time before the full transformation is complete!" Ed looked behind him and saw that he was starting to grow a tail. Soon, A large amount of Fangpyres ran out from behind a junk pile, soon followed by a serpent wrecking ball, with the face on the ball staring at the ninja and kunoichi. Cole had an uncomfortable look on his face as everyone pulled out their weapons.

"Uh, is that wrecking ball staring at me," he asked. It started swinging back, then swiveled and started heading towards them. All the ninja and kunoichi jumped away, with Sensei Wu and Nya both grabbing Lin and pulling her out of the way, but Ed and Edna were frozen in place.

"DUCK," cried out Jay as he grabbed his parents and pulled them out of the way, the wrecking ball crashing into the now empty fridge.

"Ah, thanksss ssson," said Ed as Jay got off of him.

"Lloyd," said Sensei Wu angrily as he finally spotted the young Garmadon responsible on top of a pile of tires.

"Hello Uncle," said Lloyd, smirking as Fangtom joined him, not seeing Kyria at all as Sensei Wu gently pushed her behind him. "Looks like we're not the only family reunion!" Ed and Edna started backing up, but still glared up at him. "I'm glad you brought the ninja! Oh, and the kunoichi. You guys always yell at me if I forget that part!" The girls looked back and forth at each other, and then up at Lloyd.

"This is only the fourth time we've met," said Sam. Lloyd rolled his eyes.

"Whatever! Either way, I could use some help taking out the trash," he said as he started his evil laugh. Lin stepped out from behind Sensei Wu.

"Lloyd," she asked, looking up at him with a confused expression. He gasped and looked down at her.

"Lin," he replied with equal confusion. "What are you doing here? I thought you were at Darkly's!"

"I broke out of there ages ago," she said, "and I tried to take down Uncle, but I didn't know he had students, so I ended up losing." She remembered how she had, 100%, been taken down by Nya, without any involvement from Sensei Wu. "I was forced to stay with them." Lloyd's eyes lit up.

"Well this is great! Then once I take down the ninja-"

"No Lloyd," she exclaimed, holding out her arms as if she were trying to protect them. "Don't you dare hurt them!" Lloyd looked at her with hurt and confusion, while the other ninja, kunoichi, and Nya looked confused.

"Is she… protecting us," asked Jay.

"I don't know…" said Cole, "but I think I like where this is going!"

"W-What do you mean no," Lloyd asked, trying not to cry. "C-Come on, we're the best evil duo that the world has ever seen!" Lin looked down, then at her Uncle. He just gave her a smile and a nod, and her expression became determined.

"Lloyd, I don't wanna be evil anymore," she declared. Everyone short of Sensei Wu, the Fangpyres, and the Walker parents gasped. Sensei Wu looked on at Kyria proudly as Ed and Edna just looked at each other in confusion at how such an adorable, nice little girl was evil in the first place. "I wanna be good! I used to like being bad, but then I met the ninja and the kunoichi and Nya and the Walkers. I saw what good was being like, and you know what? It looks great! I don't have to steal my candy! I get warm hugs, even when I'm bad! I get lots of affection and warmth, and just, being good is so much better than being bad! I can't be bad with you anymore Lloyd… I'm sorry, I just can't…" She sniffled and looked down as Lloyd's face filled with betrayal.

"But Lin… how… how could you betray me like this?!" He sniffled, wiping away the forming tears, his expression turning from betrayal to anger. "You're not my sister anymore!" Lin gasped in shock.

"Lloyd! How could you say that?" Lloyd just glared at her.

"How could you say that you don't wanna be evil anymore? You may as well not even be a Garmadon! Evil is in our blood!" He pointed at the group angrily. "ATTACK!" Nya looked over at Jay.

"If we want to turn your parents back," she said as she gestured at the staff Fangtom was holding, "then we need to get the antivenom in the staff!"

"Second dose," cried out Cole as the wrecking ball came back at them, "hit the dirt!" Everyone jumped out of the way, with Sensei Wu having to grab a stunned and silent Kyria out of the way. Kai's hand went to his Sword as he looked at his sister.

"Easier said than done sis," he said as he pulled out his Sword. "We're a bit outnumbered." Kim smiled and took a fighting stance, holding the chain of the chigiriki against the staff of it.

"Yeah, but they're outmatched," she said as she ran in towards them. Jay pulled out his Nunchaks, glaring at the incoming Fangpyres.

"Nobody messes with my family," he declared as he ran into battle, jumping up into the air and then slamming down his Nunchaks, zapping the nearby Fangpyres and sending them flying. The wrecking ball started swinging towards him, but he just leaned back like he was limboing and let it fly over him. It hit a garbage pile right by a street lamp and got stuck on said street lamp.

Everyone else followed him into battle, shouting out as they started their Spinjitsu and bulldozed over several Fangpyres. Another group of Fangpyres surrounded Sensei Wu and Kyria, so Sensei Wu pulled out the Sacred Flute and started playing it, making the Fangpyres hiss in pain. Nya jumped in and kicked one in the face, sending him flying. She then hit another below the belt, making him fall down, and then punched another in the face, knocking him over and then grabbing him by the feet, spinning him around until she let go and sent him flying. She smirked as she ran over to the two of them.

"You know Sensei, I think we make a pretty good duet," she said smugly. Suddenly, loud rock music started playing from a boom box Lloyd had brought.

"Young nephew," shouted out Sensei Wu, "must I teach you who's side you should be on?!"

"Sorry Uncle," said Lloyd as he turned up the volume, "can't hear you!" A Fangpyre sneaked up behind Lin and bit her, making her cry out in pain as Edna hit the offending Serpentine with a frying pan.

"Lin," said Sensei Wu with concern as she fell over, catching her before she could hit the ground. Ed looked at Edna proudly.

"Way to go Edna!" Nya looked at the bite mark and saw the red venom in the wound, seeping into Lin's system.

"She's been infected! I don't know if there's enough antivenom in the staff for all three of you!" Lin smiled a bit, accepting her fate.

"It's okay! Use it on Jay's parents! I'll be fine!" Nya just looked surprised.

"Seriously, did we end up hitting an off button for your evil?"

"NINJA GO," shouted out the boys, as the girls said "KUNOICHI GO," at the same time. They started up their Spinjitsu and sent several Fangpyres fleeing in fear. Three of them turned a corner and saw that giant statue Ed had been making. They all smirked at each other as the idea crossed their minds, and they jumped on it, biting it in various places in order to speed up the transformation process. The ninja and kunoichi stopped their Spinjitsu just before the turn due to the shaking ground, only to see the statue of Jay come around it, holding up its giant nunchaks threateningly.

"Gah, what the heck is that thing," asked Jay as he prepared to possibly fight it.

"Uh," said Ed nervously, "it was supposed to be in your honor son! But, do you like it," he asked hopefully. It started to swing the nunchak down.

"Thanks, but no thanks," said Jay as he started to run away. The nunchak hit the ground right behind them.

"Speed up if you don't wanna get crushed," shouted out Kim.

"Like we're just gonna run towards it and try to fight that thing," said Cole angrily as he turned towards her. As soon as he turned his head to face forward again, he saw the wrecking ball heading back towards them. "Oh, why'd you have to be born in a junkyard," he complained at Jay.

"I know," Jay replied, "tell me about it!" The wrecking ball swung at them again and almost all of them jumped out of the way, but when the dust settled, there was a blue clad person missing.

" 7," counted Sam in confusion," what happened to number 8? Where's Jay?" Bree squinted at the wrecking ball.

"Is he… seriously doing that," she asked.

"What's he thinking," asked Kai in a worried and angry tone. Jay waited for the wrecking ball to reach the peak of its swing and then jumped off, landing on the roof of the actual vehicle part. He climbed down and kicked out the Fangpyre in the drivers seat before jumping in, looking at a dashboard with a face and long fangs. The dashboard narrowed its eyes at him as it hissed.  
"Let's see if I can work this," he said as he grabbed the right fang and pulled on it.

Cole held his Scythe with both hands, holding it above his head as the nunchak of the serpentine statue swung down towards him.

"H-Hey Kim," he said, turning to her, "a little help here?" She nodded and ran in, the chain against the Chigiriki as she got behind Cole, helping him push up and throw the massive nunchak away, throwing the statue off balance. Jay took advantage of it and hit the statue, knocking him into a pile of tires. Jay got off the wrecking ball and went over to the others, where Cole glared at him. "Hey! Kim and I had it totally under control!" The giant statue started to get up. Kim held up her Chigiriki.

"I've got this! Just buy me some time," she ordered. They all nodded and let their backs face her as she focused. She opened her eyes, glaring at the statue as the metal of the junkyard started flying towards it, melding and hardening together to make a thick, metal shell around it. Once it was encased, it beat against the metal shell, but it didn't even dent. Kim smiled proudly, but then started wobbling a bit. "I… did it…" Kai heard the shakiness in her voice and turned around to grab her just as she fell.

"Kim! Are you okay," Kai asked.

"I'm fine," she said in an exhausted tone of voice. "Quit worrying."

"What's going on," Kai panicked, turning to Sensei Wu.

"She unknowingly tried to access the True Potential of her Weapon without first unlocking it, like breaking down the door instead of using the key," he said as he looked at her work. "It has repercussions. The door needs to be fixed. It's using her energy to restore the imbalance."

"So I'm a bit tired, big deal," she said.

Lloyd looked down at the metal shell and at the knocked out Fangpyre warriors. He quickly realized he couldn't win this fight.

"RETREAT," he cried out. A Rattlecopter came and got Lloyd and Fangtom, while the Fangpyres ran, hopped, and slithered away. Nya ran after them angrily.

"He's getting away with the staff," she said as she chased them before having to stop. Jay sighed.

"Right now would be a good time for our dragons to come back." Ed walked over, now far more green and scaly than he had been before.

"It'sss okay ssson," he said in an attempt to comfort Jay.

"There is still a way," declared Sensei Wu.

"How," said Sam, raising an eyebrow. "Am I just gonna use the sand to blast myself into the sky?" She started rubbing her chin. "Actually, in theory, that could work,"

"Perhaps," said Sensei Wu, "but that is not what I mean. The Golden Weapons have a hidden potential within each of them for far more than the control over their individual Elements. But they also evolve for the times and the needs of their true user. While their fighting forms will not change, if you need something of them, they can turn into just that. If in tune with a focused heart and a dire need, they will do what they need to."

"Uh, Sensei," said Bree, "can you say that in English please?"

"He's saying our weapons are vehicles themselves," said Zane.

"Um… no offense but that's literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard," said Rose. "No offense Sensei, but why would they have the ability to do that?"

"My father was very wise," replied Sensei Wu, "and could see beyond the now." Kai looked down at his Sword.

"Don't tell me I have to ride this thing like a broomstick," he whined.

"Jay, concentrate on unlocking your Golden Weapon," instructed Sensei Wu. "Let your heart guide you! Imagine that you are taking flight."

Jay looked down at his Nunchaks of Lightning and closed his eyes, holding one handle in each hand. He spun it above his head in his right hand, then swung in downward to the left. He lifted up his foot and held it un both hands underneath his legs, then started spinning as he let go of it with his right hand, encased in a ball of blue energy as he lifted off the ground, creating a bright flash of white light. Once the light dissipated, he was in a blue fighter jet. The top of the cockpit lifted up and he looked at it in amazement.

"Whoa! Haha, did I just do that?! This is so cool! I think I'll call it… the Storm Fighter!"

Bree held out her Fans of the Wind, doing a dance as she gracefully moved in a slow circle, moving the fans up and down gently. The wind started to pick up around her and lift her up from the ground. She held her arms up and let go of the fans as they spun in a circle above her. Soon, they descended downwards and whipped up dust all around her. When the dust settled, she was in a glider style jet, far more streamlined than Jay's.

"Whoa," she said plainly. "Talk about a glider! Hm… Gale Glider. I like it!"

Kai looked at his Sword of Fire, then closed his eyes and he held it with both hands, straight in front of him pointing upwards. He then opened his eyes, balancing on his left foot as he let go of the Sword with his left hand and thrust the Sword out to the right, then in front of him. He then pushed his right foot out to the side as he moved his left hand over the blade, fire burning where his hand had passed over it. He then threw the Sword of Fire high into the air as burning ground lifted him up and enveloped him in a bright flash of light and fire. When the light disappeared, Kai was sitting on top of a motorcycle.

"Nice bike," he said excitedly. "Hm, I'm gonna call this thing the Blade Cycle!"

Kim stood up shakily on her own, but held the Chigiriki of Metal in both of her hands. She swung the weight around her, then let it slow down a bit so the weight went around her. She then flicked it to the right, making the chain pound on the ground. She did the four times, and shook what seemed to be the whole Earth. Eight curved metal shards came up from the ground, forming a dome above her. The dome completely encased her, and then started caving in to show her on top of a bike like Kai's, but much more streamlined.

"Best bike ever," she said happily, but tiredly. "What should I name it? Huh, maybe the Metal Menace!"

Zane took both of his Shurikens of Ice, one in each hand as he pointed them in various directions, ice shards growing from the individual points. Soon, he let go and they kept making the ice shards on their own as Zane jumped up and landed on what would soon be the seat. In a flash of light, most of the ice broke off and revealed an ice mobile.

"A rather awesome Snowmobile," he said.

Sam held the Tonfas of Hand, one in each hand. She jumped up in the air and spun around, sending jets of sand flying away in a circle before pointing the stream downward, propelling her up in the air. She then aimed them towards, the sky, sending her to the ground as the sand she created came upwards to meet her, encircling her before completely obscuring her from view. The sand disappeared and revealed Sam on a mobile for sand.

"Nice," she said simple. "I'll call it the Sand Shredder!"

Cole spun his Scythe of Quakes in his right hand on his right side, then swinging it behind his back and bringing it to swing on his left side before throwing it up in the air. He jumped forward, rolling in the air as the Scythe spun above his head. Large boulders came up from the ground and slowly swirled around him, then streamed to pile up underneath him, lifting him up in the air. He grabbed his Scythe and jumped up, then hit it on the pile, and in a flash of golden light, was sitting in a large armored car.

"Ha," he exclaimed, "I'd hate to hurt Rocky's feelings, but I think he's just been replaced! I'm totally calling this the Tread Assault! Cool name huh," he asked, looking at Rose, the one person who had yet to make her vehicle.

Rose rolled her eyes at Cole's statement, but then held the Sais of Flora in her hands. She spun the Sais in them, then threw the one in her right hand at the ground and the one in her left hand into the air. The one on the ground started growing vines that wrapped around her while the one in the sky created a dust of pollen that closed in around her. In a flash of light, she was in an armored car much like Cole's, but far sleeker and with vines all over it.

"Talk about a sleek and slim design," she said. "I'll call it the Forest Jeep!"

Jay's Storm Fighter slowly started to lift off, then shot up into the air after Lloyd and General Fangtom.

"WOOOOOO HOO HOOOOO," he yelled excitedly. The rest all revved up their vehicles, but Sensei Wu walked over to Kim on her bike.

"Kim," he said, "be very careful. You have drained your energy with your attempted use of the full power of the Chigiriki of Metal. Be cautious as you tread." She nodded.

"Don't worry Sensei, I won't over do it!" They all raced off towards the Fangpyre general and Lloyd. Nya looked at Sensei Wu and his Sacred Flute.

"Does your flute turn into anything," she asked. He looked at it and then back at her.

"I wish," he said plainly.

Jay got close to the Rattlecopter that Lloyd and Fangtom were hanging from, but then flew way too far past it.

"What the heck was that," asked Lloyd in a startled voice.

"Whoops, heheh, over shot that one," said Jay sheepishly. As the others slowly got closer, Jay closed in on Lloyd and Fangtom. "Let's see what this baby can do." He tried to gently make it go faster, but then it started flying out of control, the top of the cockpit popping off as he went towards the Rattlecopter. Lloyd and Fangtom both ducked as Jay went over them, but Fangtom felt his hand get much lighter. He looked and realized his staff was missing.

"The staff," called out his left head in a panicked tone.

Jay looked down at his hand in complete and total surprise.

"I got it," he said in disbelief before cheering. "I GOT IT!" He started laughing, holding up the staff triumphantly as his vehicle turned back into Nunchaks on his back. "Uh oh." He screamed as he started to plummet, but Bree's glider got right under him as the cockpit opened and he hit the floor hard. "UNF!" He groaned and looked up at her. "Thanks Bree."

"Don't talk," she said, "I need to focus or we'll both fall!" He nodded.

"Okay, I won't say a word!"

"Good, then start that now!" Bree hit a button. "Let's hope this is the communication button. Guys, we've got the staff! We need to get back to the Bounty so that we can be somewhere safe for Nya to fix Ed and Edna. Oh, and Lin I guess." Cole nodded.

"Got it! I'll relay the info to Nya and Sensei Wu," he said as he pulled out his cell and called Nya. Nya looked at her phone going off in confusion.

"Cole," she asked in confusion. "How'd you get my number?"

"No time for that," he said. "We got the staff. You need to get everyone over to the Bounty so that we can cure Jay's parents. And Lin I guess?" She nodded.

"On it!" She hung up and turned to the Walkers. "Where's your car?" Ed scratched the back of his head.

"The Old Gallopy? Over there," he said. She ran over and turned the keys.

"Hop in, we've got a little trip to make!" Ed and Edna just looked at each other, with Edna smiling.

"Oh, I knew I liked that girl!" They all climbed in and started driving off.

On the way to the Destiny's Bounty, Kim was in front of everyone, speeding there as quickly as she could with Kai right behind her.

"Kim slow down! You're gonna burn yourself out," he shouted to her in a worried tone.

"I'll be fine…" she said weakly as her eyes kept closing, with her repeatedly forcing them back open. "We have to make sure we can get Jay's parents and Kyria to the Bounty so we can… turn them…" Her eyes rolled back and she passed out, her vehicle disappearing as her Chigiriki was holstered on her back again.

"KIM," shouted out Kai and Cole, with Kai racing right past her. Cole stopped right in front of her and got out of the Tread Assault, picking her up.

"Don't worry Kim," he said as he jumped back into his vehicle. "I've got you."

General Fangtom looked down at his army, furry on both of his faces.

"EVERYONE," shouted the left head.

"ATTACK," yelled out the right. The army started to run after the group in an effort to get the staff back, yelling out as they ran.

Soon enough, they were all on the Destiny's Bounty, with Cole carrying Kim and Nya now holding the staff. She pulled the center out of it and looked at the Walkers and Lin.

"Come with me. Once I analyze it, I can fix you guys, and maybe even replicate it so that there'll be enough for all of you!"

Jay broke into the bridge first.

"Man your stations," he said, going over to the button. "We need everyone's help!" Kai looked at the empty spot that was Kim's battle station.

"We can't do it without Kim, and she's out cold!" Lin went over there.

"I can do it jussst asss good asss Kim," she proclaimed, starting to grow fangs and get a snake tongue. "I watch you guysss all the time!" Bree looked at her in surprise.

"Seriously, what's with the sudden change?"

"No time to discuss," said Jay. He rubbed his hands together as he looked at the button. "I've been waiting for this moment," he said as he hit it hard. He waited in anticipation, but nothing happened.

"No pressure Jay," started Rose, "but they're kind of gaining on us!" Nya held out a tray with three cups.

"There, enough for all three of you! The antivenom was surprisingly simple!" Ed and Edna took their cups as Nya went over to Lin and let her grab hers.

"Bottomsss up," said Ed and all three of them swallowed it. They shook heavily and made cries of pain as Ed and Edna glowed with a bright, golden light, but Lin glowed with a silver light. Once they light was gone, they were all back to normal.

"I don't get what's wrong," said Jay as he hit the panel in frustration. "I worked forever on this, it's supposed to work!" Ed came up behind him and tapped his shoulder.

"Ah, son," he said, making Jay jump. "Maybe I can help."

"Dad," Jay said happily, "you're okay!" Ed laughed a bit.

"You're darn tooting!" He leaned down and fixed the wiring, with everyone looking on and smiling. "Ah, that should do it! Now try it!" Jay nodded and hit the button. Everyone looked on in awe as the ship took flight, while Lloyd looked on with total frustration.

"No no no NOOOO," he yelled. He started sputtering as the dust started getting in his mouth.

As the Bounty flew off, Nya lost her balance and accidentally let go of the staff. It flew out an open door and hit a Fangpyre on the head before bouncing off and landing in the ground. The Rattlecopter lowered so that Fangtom could grab the staff.

"These ninja," started the left head.

"They must be stopped," finished the right. Lloyd just groaned.

"Tell me about it," he said.

* * *

Later that day, during twilight, Jay went out onto the deck to meet his parents, smiling as Edna held a notepad and a pencil at the ready, but loosely at her sides.

"We'll get you back to the junkyard just as soon as we know the coast is clear," he said. "But stay as long as you'd like. Kyria would love it! And… I'd love it too. It's nice having you here." Ed gave off a soft laugh.

"Take a note Edna," he said, gesturing to his wife and then putting an arm around Jay's shoulders. "Of all our inventions, this one is our greatest." She smiled and threw away the notepad and pencil.

"Oh, I already know dear," she said as she moved in to hug them both. Lin looked on at them sadly from the other side of the ship, in the dining room. Sensei Wu walked in behind her.

"You look as if you want to join in on it," he said. She jumped a bit and then sighed in relief.

"Don't scare me like that," she exclaimed. Then she looked down. "And… it's not that. Well, not just that." She sat down. "Did I really make the right choice? Lloyd's my only brother. It's not like our mom's in the picture. I have no idea what she's like. And Dad's… well, he's Dad. He cares so much about me, and I just threw that in his face, and Lloyd's. Did I really make the best choice?" He smiled and sat down next to her.

"The path to goodness is not the easiest path to take," he said wisely. "However, in the end, it is the most rewarding." He pat her head gently. "You are already on your way there. I hope that you can keep on this path. And even if the rest of your family has abandoned you, I will not." She teared up and hugged him.

"Thanks Uncle…" She sniffled. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

"Of course."

 **Song Of Hope: FINALLY DONE! Okay, this was a great chapter to write! Please leave great reviews!**


End file.
